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EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

HBW  YORK  •    BOSTON  •   CHICAGO  •  DALLAS 
ATLANTA  •   SAN  FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  Limited 

LONDON  •  BOMBAY  •  CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OF  CANADA,  Lm 

TORONTO 


EDUCATION  FOE 
DEMOCRACY 


BY 

HENRY  FREDERICK  COPE 


jeeto  gorfe 

THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 
19£0 

All  rights  reserved 


4  O^^ 


COPYEIGHT,  1920, 

BY  THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 


Set  up  and  printed.      Published,  April,  1920 


<? 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

-*^^    Education  in  a  Democracy 1 

II     Discovering  the  Need 15 

III     Democracy  as  a  Religious  Ideal     ....  28 

*"!¥     Religion  in  Democratic  Education     ...  42 

V     Education  and  the  Problems  of  Democracy  59 

VI     Problems  of  World  Living  .       .       .       .       .       .  69. 

VII     The  Spiritual  Nature  of  Education  in  a  De- 
mocracy           81 

VIII     The  School  of  Democracy 93 

IX     Beginning  at  Home   . 108 

X     Democratic  Training  Through  the  Church  123 

XI     The   Public  Schools  and  Democracy's  Pro- 
gram           138 

The  Schools  and  Moral  Training       .      .      .  155n 

XIII     Spiritual  Values  in  School  Studies  .      .      .  168 

XIV     Spiritual  Values  in  School  Activities     .      .183 

XV     The  Bible  and  Public  Education  ....  194 

XVI     Organizing  the  Community 210 

XVII     A  Community  Program 221 

XVIII  \The  Function  of  a  College  in  a  Democracy  .  232 

XIX     Teaching  Religion  in  the  College     .      .      .  245 

\  XX     The  Realization  of  Democracy     ....  257 

'    XXI     Democracy  in  the  Crucial  Hour  ....  266 

I 

/f  f>  O  ^  i  >'^,''  -• 


v„ 


EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 


EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

CHAPTER  I 

EDUCATION    IN    A    DEMOCRACY 

Democracy  is  more  than  a  form  of  government;  it  is 
a  social  ideal,  a  mode  of  life  and  a  quality  of  the  human 
spirit;  therefore  it  cannot  be  imposed  on  a  people;  it 
must  be  acquired. 

Democracy  is  social  self-determination  directed  toward 
ideal  ends.  It  is  the  civil  organization  of  a  common 
goodwill.  It  is  an  attitude  of  mind  which  holds  that  the 
highest  gopd  lies  in  the  good  of  all,  that  the  aim  of  all 
being  is  common  well  being.  It  is  a  faith  which  holds 
that  a  common  goodwill  may  control  all  society.  It 
is  an  ideal  which  rises  in  the  minds  of  a  free  people  and 
depends  on  their  wills  and  their  wisdom  for  its  expression 
in  social  life.  Hence  it  has  a  fundamental  interest  in 
education  as  the  means  by  which  people  gain  vision, 
develop  a  social  will  and  organize  their  purposes 
effectively. 

But  democracy  is  more  than  an  ideal;  it  is  a  condition 

;of  living;   it   is   a   social   order.     It_Js   for   practice   as  I 

jwell  as   for  proclamation.     We  believe  m  Tt   as  a  mode  [ 

oT'soci^l  life.     It  is  this  practical  realization  which  the 

jworld  most  eagerly  desires.     No  question  grips  us  more 

than   this:     How    can    our    splendid   vision    be    brought 

\o  earth  and  men  become  willing  and  able  to  solve  their 

j  problems   of   living   together?     Two    answers    appear   in 

'American    current   life :    by    legislation  —  that    is    social 

1  -  ^ 


^ 


2  EDUCATXO:^f  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

regulation  and  construction,  and  by  ediication.     Which 
is  the  better  way  ? 

In  North  America  foraial  education  is  the  product  of  ' 
democracy;  in  the  world-life  democracy  will  be  largely 
the  product  of  education.  The  American  ideal  of  democ- 
racy has  developed  through  the  practical  experience  of 
a  free  people  finding  working  modes  of  social  organization 
and  control.  That  experience  not  only  clarified  the  ideal  i 
of  democracy,  it  revealed  the  conditions  of  its  realization, 
and  convinced  even  the  average  citizen  of  its  entire 
dependence  on  education.  The  government  that  sets 
men  free  must  aid  them  to  self-government.  Political 
self-preservation  dictated  universal  educational  oppor- 
tunity. Schools  were  founded  to  save  the  free  state, 
and,  of  necessity,  they  became  free  schools.  Education 
became  a  recognized  and  essential  function  of  a  democ- 
racy. The  democratic  state  saves  itself  by  saving  its 
selves.  Its  development  depends  on  the  development  of 
every  member  to  the  very  last  one. 

Democracy  gives  birth  to  general  ediication.  If  edu- 
cation is  the  duty  of  democracy  it  is  because  the  develop- 
ment of  democracy  is  a  certain  result  of  true  educa- 
tion. The  state  must  maintain  the  school  because  the 
school  maintains  the  state.  But  the  work  of  the  schools 
depends  on  the  spirit  of  the  state.  Given  a  state  de- 
signed for  democratic  ends  it  will  foster  a  system  of 
education  designed  to  develop  persons  in  their  social 
capacities.  Here  schools  exist  to  train  the  young  in 
the  art  of  social  living.  It  is  their  function  so  to  develop 
in  growing  .persons  their  social  powers  and  values  that  - 
they  will  organize  an  ideal  society.  The  democratic 
purpose  expresses  itself  in  education  in  two  ways :  First, 
it  establishes  a  definite  aim  and  test,  seeking  fully  devel- 
oped, socially  capable  citizens ;  in  a  word,  education  in 
a  democracy  is  simply  society  organizing  itself  to  develop 
the  democratic  mind  and  democratic  methods  of  living 


ed\7CAtion  in  a  democracy  3 

Second,  it  detei vnines  the  conditions  of  success  in  popular 
education:  the  purposes  of  education  can  only  be  fully 
achieved  under  democratic  conditions;  that  is  to  say, 
persoTQ^  can  develop  to  their  fullness  onLy^  in  a  society 
organized  jgrimarily  for  th&.sake  of  perg^gps.  '^  This  is 
the  distinguishing  mark  of  a  democracy ;  it  is  that  form 
of  social  organization  which  is  determined  by  the  needs 
of  persons,  in  which  civil  rights  are  based  upon  personal 
qualities  and  rights  and  in  which  the  needs  of  persons 
ultimately  determine  all  procedures  and  shape  all  aims. 
These  characteristics  of  civil  life  are  essential  also  to 
an  educational  program,  so  that,  in  an  important  sense, 
democracy  in  action  is  all  educative. 

DEMOCRACY    DEFINED 

The  unity  of  education  and  democracy  becomes  clear 
when,  in  the  light  of  the  modern  personal-social  aim  and 
process  of  the  schools,  we  come  to  examine  our  current 
concept  of  democracy.  That  concept  is  implied  in 
Lincoln^s    famous    words,    "Government    of   the   people, 

^  by  the  people  and  for  the  people,"  with  emphasis  on  the 
last  clause.  ^  A  democracy  is  that  form  of  social  organiza- 

jKmi  for  civil  purposes  which  existing  by  the  will  of  the 
people  directs  all  its  powers  to  promoting  the  welfare 
of  all  the  people.  ^  Other  civil  forms  may  exist  to  main- 
tain the  prestige  of  hereditary  monarchs,  to  perpetuate 
constitutional  modes,  to  extend  territory  or  to  advance 
trade;  but  a  democracy  has  the  peculiar  purpose,  that 
its  people  may  have  life  and  may  have  it  more  abundantly. 
It  is  well  to  keep  in  mind  this  distinguishing  mark.  It 
is  often  supposed  that  the  right  of  every  person  to 
participate  in  public  affairs  makes  a  democracy ;  but  that 
right  is  only  incidental  to  this  dominating  purpose,  that 
every  power  of  the  whole  social  organization  shall  be 
directed  to  the  public  good.  That  end  makes  public  and 
iiniversal  participation  essential.     The  child  goes  to  school 


4  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

for    public    ends    and    not    for    private   ,.notives    alone; 
schooling  is  the  method  by  which  he  lives  and  learns  to  ' 
live  the  life  of  a  democracy. 

Democracy  an  educational  problem.  If  the  democratic 
state  must  foster  education  it  is  not  less  true  that  educa- 
tion must  foster  the  democratic  state  and  society.  An 
educational  program  of  developing  lives  must  be  seriously 
concerned  with  the  society  in  which  these  lives  are  to 
develop.  The  new  social  ideals  of  education  are  possible 
only  in  a  social  order  which  is  essentially  democratic. 
The  social  aim  of  the  school  can  be  realized  only  where 
society    exists    fundamentally    for    the    sake    of    persons. 

/The  difficulties  in   our  present   system   of  education   are 

largely  those  due  to  conditions  of  operation  or  control 

\  which   are   not   truly   democratic   or   to   an    environment 

Vwhich  undoes  that  which  the  school  accomplishes.  We  are 
seeking  to  educate  persons  for  freedom  under  school-room 

'experiences  of  autocrac}^:  the  controlling  purpose  of  the 
school  often  is  either  the  prc})aration  of  the  children 
of  the  well-to-do  for  the  dominance  of  others,  or  the 
training  of  others  for  efficient  serfdom.  The  atmosphere 
of  the  school  may  be  emphatically  anti-democratic ;  it 
may  be  the  tool  of  political  parties  or  of  a  social  cabal. 
We  can  hope  to  train  for  democracy  only  by  the 
experience  of  democracy.  At  present  the  school  is  set 
in  a  society  which  does  not  yet  fully  believe  in  social 
education;  it  is  not  yet  deeply  concerned  about  persons, 
as  such,  or  their  powers  or  their  social  realizations. 
Rather  it  is  anxious  that  each  shall  be  prepared  to  play 
his  part  to  his  own  individual  advantage.  And  this  is 
only  to  say  that  our  society  has  not  yet  accepted  democ- 
racy. All  that  it  means  and  how  its  meaning  is  realized 
we  are  slowly  learning. 

Education  a  political  problem.  Democracy  depends 
on  education  because  it  cannot  exist  by  edict;  it  is  made 
possible  only  by  making  democrats.     It  is  more  than  a\ 


EDUCATION  IN  A  DEMOCRACY  5 

constitutional  civil  order;  it  is  a  governing  ideal  in  the 
minds  of  those  who  constitute  the  state.  It  is  not  a 
method  of  governing  the  people ;  it  is  a  method  by  which 
people  organize  their  common  affairs.  Acts  of  legislative 
bodies  do  not  make  a  democracy;  it  often  exists  in  spite 
of  forms  of  government,  as  in  the  case  of  Great  Britain. 
A  democracy  is  possible  only  as  democracy  is  developed 
in  the  minds  and  wills,  in  the  habits  and  ideals  of  all  the 
people.     This  is  the  task  of  education. 

As  a  democracy  develops  the  educational  imperatixfi*^ 
is  intensified.  Social  life  develops  intensively  and 
extensively.  In  each  civil  unit  democracy  becomes  more 
complete;  it  reaches  out  further  into  all  forms  of  life. 
It  widens  the  social  duties  and  privileges  of  every  person. 
It  takes  over  wider  reaches  of  life.  The  socialization  of 
governmental  functions  which  has  developed  so  rapidly 
in  the  last  decade  is,  wherever  these  functions  are  exer- 
cised by  the  people  for  the  people,  simply  the  more  com- 
plete application  of  the  democratic  principle.  Even  a 
cursory  comparison  of  the  duties  of  citizenship  in  the 
United  States  a  century  ago  with  those  duties  to-day 
will  suggest  the  greatly  heightened  need  for  the  education 
of  the  citizen.  This  need  is  based  on  the  fact  that  he 
has  become  more  truly  and  more  fully  a  part  of  the 
state.  He  projects  more  of  himself  into  the  life  of  the 
state;  he  not  only  pays  taxes  and  votes  for  representa- 
tives ;  he  must  use  his  brain  in  thinking  through  grave 
problems ;  and,  under  the  experience  of  the  great  war, 
he  has  learned  that  he  must  serve  with  all  his  powers  as 
part  of  his  identification  with  the  state. 

Democracy  makes  new  demands  on  all.     The,. develop-     jf« 
ment  of  democracy  extensively  may  make  even   greater     I  [ 
demands  on  the  citizen.     We  look  back  over  the  growing 
art  of  democracy  from  the  folk-meeting  and  the  town- 
meeting  to  the  state  and  nation,  and  now  we  believe  we 
are  within  hailing  distance  of  a  world  democracy.     This 


6  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

is  not  only  an  extension  from  one  unit  to  many,  from  a 
few  states  to  all  states,  it  is  an  extension  from  small 
groups  to  an  all-inclusive  group.  It  is  not  only  a  political 
contagion,  passing  on  to  new  groups;  it  is  a  new  life 
which  welds  all  the  groups  into  one.  Whatever  the  actual 
social  organization  of  the  world  may  be  to-morrow  we 
ar^  facing^  the  problem  of  Jiving jn_ajworld  of  the  closest 
sociaLunity  under^democratic^id^^  OurTmmediate  tasl^ 
is  that  of  learning  to  live  in  the  common,  close  neighbor- 
hood of  the  whole  world. 

A  world  democracy  is  upon  us  almost  irrespective  of 
forms  of  civil  government,  at  least  the  form  of  civil 
organization  follows  rather  than  precedes  the  democratic 
experience.  The  whole  world  has  been  drawn  into  a 
common  neighboring  by  the  bonds  of  transportation  and 
commerce.  To-day  we~afe"nearer  to  the  remotest  people 
tlian  orice  we  were  to  those  in  the  next  state,  and  we  are 
more  dependent  on  them  than  once  we  were  on  our  near 
neighbors.  Into  every  home  the  life  of  every  land  enters 
every  day.  The  breakfast-table  may  carry  contributions 
from  every  continent.  Into  the  lives  of  all  we  each  reach 
out,  not  only  with  ease  but  with  tremendous  potentiality. 
There  are  no  longer  any  independent  peoples.  No  nation 
-<:aii^any_lDiig£r._c^ary£^_mitJ^  The  social 

obligations  that  come  from  propinquity  are  on  all, 
together  with  the  social  duties  that  arise  from  mutual 
dependence.  The  welfare  of  the  least  cannot  be  a  matter 
of  indifference  to  the  largest. 

PROBI^MS    OF    WORLD    DEMOCRACY 

World  living  has  become  a  problem  in  personality. 
This  weaving  together  of  the  world  life  has  been  accom- 
panied by  the  infusion  of  the  blood  of  personality  into 
the  strands  of  the  web.  National  living  has  been  person- 
alized. It  is  not  governments  that  are  thrown  together 
but  people.     It  is  not  China  with  whom  we  have  to  live 


EDUCATION  IN  A  DEMOCRACY  7 

but  the  Chinese  people.  This  is  the  case  because  the 
contacts  are  so  largely  personal.  Our  relations  with 
other  people  are  not  matters  of  diplomatic  arrangements ; 
they  are  matters  of  our  daily  bread,  our  common,  personal 
needs  and  our  currency  and  food  of  thought  and  feeling. 
Further,  the  relations  are  personal  because  civil  organiza- 
tion increasingly  becomes  personal.  Our  world-social 
experiences  are  determined  not  by  some  overhead  mech- 
anism created  by  the  state  but  by  our  own  wills,  our  own 
habits  of  life  and  thought.  Our  adjustments  are  not 
between  the  constitutions  of  states  but  between  the  char- 
acters of  peoples.  The  blood  of  life  is  in  the  web  that 
binds  us  together  and  so  world-relations  pass  from  organ- 
ization to  organism. 

Whatever  the  external  forms  of  civil  life  may  be  the 
fact  is  that  all  must  learn  to  live  together  in  a  common 
world-life  which  is  increasingly  democratic  in  character. 
No  one  can  be  exempt  from  this  world-life ;  none  who 
have  realized  it  in  any  degree  desire  to  be  exempt.  But 
it  is  a  new  life  which  cannot  be  lived  in  the  spirit  and 
the  mode  of  the  old.  It  makes  new  demands.  It  estab- 
lishes new  standards.  It  is  constantly  revealing  new 
requirements.  Old  ideals  are  inadequate  in  a  new  world. 
Old  motives,  based  on  individual  or  purely  national 
concepts,  will  not  be  sufficient.  We  need  a  new  morality 
for  a  new  wor'ld  life.  And  therefore  we  need  a  new 
education,  or,  rather,  we  need  the  full  development  of 
our  educational  ideals,  conceived  in  democracy,  to  meet 
the  needs  of  this  fuller  democracy  of  the  race. 

Democracy  is  essentially  a  personal  process.  Before 
attempting  to  state  the  characteristics  of  education  for 
democracy,  one  must  face  a  question  that  expresses  a 
real  difficulty  to  many.  Says  one,  this  reasoning  moves 
in  a  circle  for  it  regards  democracy  as  both  cause  and 
effect  in  progress,  it  proposes  that  the  world  shall  push 
itseflf  up  hill.     How  can  democracy  both  purpose   and 


8  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

effect  its  own  progress?  Can  it  grow  beyond  itself?  Is 
it  not  an  attempt  to  elevate  humanity  by  its  own  boot- 
straps? Such  objections  appear  to  acquire  special  force 
whenever  we  contrast  the  efficiency  of  a  democratic  state 
with  that  of  an  autocracy.  In  the  latter  the  overlord, 
looking  at  his  people  objectively^  can  will  their  betterment 
overnight;  in  the  former  we  must  wait  until  the  people, 
who  must  see  themselves  subjectively,  all  will  their  own 
betterment.  But  such  comparisons  lose  sight  of  one 
essential  feature  of  a  true  democracy ;  they  overlook  the 
most  important  difference  between  autocracy  and  democ- 
racy. That  difference  lies  not  so  much  in  that  there  may 
be  one  governor  or  many,  but  in  this,  that  one  is  a  form 
of  civil  mechanism  and  the  other  is  a  mode  of  social  living. 
Democracy  is  not  a  method  of  making  people  do  things; 
it  is  a  form  of  life  under  which  people  desire  and  will  to 
do.  It  is  not  a  method  of  pushing  people  up  hill;  it  is 
the  devotion  of  a  people  to  a  purpose  which  moves  them 
forward.  It  is  not  a  mechanism  but  an  inner  motive 
force.  It  does  not  expect  to  lift  people  but  to  develop 
them. 

The  hope  of  democracy  is  not  that  people  will  make 
laws  regulating  themselves  into  higher  living  but  that 
by  the  devotion  of  all  to  the  ends  of  social  living  there 
may  be  developed  a  common  social  will  for  better  living. 
It  depends,  not  on  regulation  or  controls  imposed  but 
on  ideals  and  motives  that  furnish  an  inner  propulsion 
for  progress.  It  is  government  having  its  seat  in  the 
wills  of  people  and  progress  rising  in  the  growing  ideals 
and  desires  of  people. 

Is  social  organization  for  the  ends  of  personality  pos- 
sible? The  central  problem  of  democracy  then  lies  in 
the  question  whether  people  can  develop  their  own  ideals, 
motives,  wills,  and  powers  of  life.  This  development 
must  be  in  the  active  rather  than  in  the  passive  mood ; 
we    must    guard    against    speaking    of    "  developing    the 


EDUCATION  IN  A  DEMOCRACY  9 

people,"  as  by  some  overhead,  benevolent  and  superior 
minority.  Improvement  has  to  rise  in  the  common  will 
or,  if  it  does  not  rise  there  wholly,  it  must  express  itself 
in  the  common. will.  It  is  not  necessary  to  discuss  the 
question  whether  people  ever  do  will  their  own  develop- 
ment, for  we  know  that  there  are  not  a  few  who  persistently 
seek  higher  levels  and  greater  strength  of  life,  and  we 
know  that  these  individuals  stimulate  others  to  like 
endeavors.  The  question  is  whether  we  can  have  a  social 
organism  which,  as  a  who'le,  directs  itself  toward  its  own 
development.  Can  a  state  be  successfully  organized  for 
the  dominant  purpose  of  growing  the  lives  of  men  and 
women  ? 

Is  social  evolution  wholly  subject  to  blind  forces  lying 
outside  our  control,  or  is  man,  in  the  realm  of  personality, 
a  creature  capable  of  self -directed  evolution?  The  purely 
naturalistic  answer  which  subjects  us  entirely  to  outer 
forces  loses  sight  of  the  factor  of  the  human  conscious- 
ness and  will.  This  is  just  as  real  a  fact  as  any  other. 
A  person  is  not  only  subject  to  forces;  he  is  a  force. 
He  is  the  organizer  of  forces.  He  has  the  power  of 
considering,  recognizing  and,  to  a  large  degree,  of  di- 
recting the  very  processes  that  determine  what  he  shall 
be.  This  is  the  power  that  gives  rise  to  ediication,  for 
education  is  simply  oux  attempt  to  direct  social  evoliition. 
Educ"ation  is  democracy  at  work  developing  its"own  powers 
of  progress.  The  whole  question  leaps  out  of  the  realm 
of  speculation  into  that  of  demonstration.  In  the  labora- 
tory of  life  we  are  to-day  scientifically  working  out  an 
answer  to  the  question.  Democracy  is  proving  that 
man  can  direct  his  own  development.  Every  school  is  a 
laboratory  in  that  field.  Social  life  and  industry  are 
being  directed  and  modified  to  an  increasing  degree  by 
the  recognition  of  their  power  to  determine  character. 
All  life  is  being  studied  with  reference  to  the  educational 
opportunities  it  offers  and  the  forces  it  creates.     In  a 


10  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

democracy  we  tend  steadily  toward  the  determination  of 
all  the  conditions  of  living  by  the  study  of  their  educa- 
tional effects,  by  the  manner  in  which  they  stimulate  and 
modify  our  lives.  We  ask,  what  manner  of  people  are 
being  made  by  these  things? 

THE    HOPE    OF    A    BETTER    WORLD 

XThe  realization  of  a  truly  democratic  society  depends 
yvery  much  on  the  development  of  a  spirit  of  humanism, 
/that  is,  on  an  acceptance  of  the  happiness  and  well-being 
lof  all  mankind  as  the  supreme  aim  in  human  existence. 
Writing  in  days  when  the  world  is  still  in  arms,  when  men 
confidently  ascribe  the  success  of  their  side  to  the  force 
that  sheds  human  blood,  it  is  difficult  to  believe  that  such 
a  spirit  can  dominate  mankind.  Yet  if  it  cannot,  if  the 
good  of  all  cannot  be  the  aim  of  all,  democracy  is  no 
more  than  a  political  dream.  A  writer  ^  in  one  of  the 
most  thoughtful  journals  recently  strongly  urged  the 
"  Ground  for  Hope,"  as  he  expressed  it ;  he  finds  many 
signs,  (traceable  through  the  history  of  civilization,  that 
we  are  coming  to  a  common  social  aim  of  human  well- 
being.  He  seeks  for  evidence  in  the  question  whether 
"  men  have  in  that  period  .of  modem  history  become  more 
united,  better  able  to  use  their  combined  forces  to  a  com- 
mon end  of  social  good,  and  wheMier  on  the  whole  they 
have  so  used  their  powers.  If  this  appears  to  be  the 
case,  then  in  a  practical  sense  the  ideal  of  humanity  is 
brought  nearer,  and  world  relations  on  the  mechanical 
side  are  favorable  to  the  increase  of  the  common  elements 
in  ethics  and  religion."  -  He  also  pertinently  quotes : 
"  Ethically,  as  well  as  physically,  humanity  is  becoming 
one,  one,  not  by  the  suppression  of  differences  or  the 
mechanical  arrangement  of  lifeless  parts,  but  by  a  widened 
consciousness  of  obligation,  a  more  sensitive  response  to 

1  F.  S.  Marvin,  in  the  Hibbert  Journal  for  April,  1918,  page  387. 

2  Jbid.,  page  399, 


EDUCATION  IN  A  DEMOCRACY  11 

the  claims  of  justice,  a  greater  forbearance  toward  differ- 
ences of  type,  a  more  enlightened  conception  of  human 
purpose."  ^ 

The  democratic  ideal  is  being  formed  in  all  experience. 
A  democratic  society  must  always  tend  to  conceive  it- 
self in  educational  terms.  It  will  see  all  life  —  whether 
in  the  home,  in  social  intercourse,  in  commerce,  in  shop 
and  factory  or  school  —  as  an  experience  in  school- 
ing, in  the  development  of  powers,  in  discipline  in  the 
art  of  living.  So  long  as  men  are  alive  and  so  long 
as  their  lives  touch  one  another  they  must  continue  to 
be  educated.  No  man  goes  into  a  factory  or  a  mill  in 
the  morning  and  comes  out  the  same  person  at  night; 
he  has  been  changed  by  the  experience  of  social  contacts 
with  other  lives,  by  work  and  by  thought.  Now  this" 
is  one  of  those  very  simple  facts  that  needs  no  elaborate 
presentation.  But  it  has  been  a  fact  which  has  not  been 
recognized  always  as  a  basis  for  action.  Democracy, 
because  its  main  interest  is  in  the  changes  that  take 
place  in  men  and  women,  in  the  question  whether  those 
changes  are  for  the  better  or  for  the  worse,  democracy 
looks  at  that  day  in  the  factory  from  a  new  angle,  from 
the  educational  point  of  view.  A  democracy  says.  We 
will  determine  the  conditions  of  factory-life  because  these 
conditions  determine  so  largely  the  lives  of  those  who  are 
the  state,  in  fact  the  factory  helps  to  make  or  mar  the 
democracy.  So  that  the  interest  in  social  welfare  which 
the  modern  state  exhibits  is  something  more  than  an 
extension  of  its  functions,  it  is  the  expression  of  its 
very  purpose,  it  is  the  discharge  of  its  function  of  devel- 
oping the  lives  of  its  people,  ^t  is  government  not  only 
of  the  people,  as  to  conditions"  6T  living,  but  for  the 
people,  that  these  conditions  may  make  the  best  kind  of 
people.  No  democracy  can  ignore  any  conditions  that 
affect  the  characters  of  persons. 

1  Quotation  from  L.  H.  Hobhouse,  "Morals  in  Evolution"  (1916). 


12  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

The  manifold  concerns  of  the  democracy  with  the 
details  of  the  life  of  the  people  are  exhibitions  of  educa- 
tional activity.  They  reveal  a  social  will  organizing  and 
directing  the  forces  of  life,  determining  the  experiences  of 
persons  and  groups,  choosing  the  stimuli  that  shall  come 
to  their  lives,  presenting  to  them  forms  of  activity,  so 
that  out  of  the  whole  of  life  there  may  develop  a  strong, 
wise,  just  and  loving  people,  living  together  in  common 
goodwill. 

If  education  is  democracy  addressing  itself  to  the  duty 
of  self-development,  how  can  we  he  sure  that  we  are 
moving  m  the  right  direction?  How  can  we  prepare 
for  the  future  when  it  is  unknown  to  us?  But  it  is  not 
necessary  to  predict  the  future  nor  to  know  the  precise 
conditions  under  which  our  children  will  have  to  live.  We 
have  ground  more  sure  than  guesses  about  to-morrow. 
We  have,  first,  before  our  eyes  readily  discernable  social 
movements,  the  direction  of  which  may  be  clearly  seen 
even  though  the  end  is  not  in  sight,  and,  second,  we 
have  this  principle  to  proceed  upon :  that  the  best  prepara- 
tion for  higher  functions  is  the  full  discharge  of  existing 
and  present  ones.  To  meet  fully  the  demands  of  the 
present  hour  is  the  best  preparation  for  the  coming  one. 
We  do  know  what  our  needs  are  to-day  and  we  know  what 
is  called  for  by  the  present  developments  in  our  social 
order.  If  this  is  an  orderly  universe  we  can  safely  pro- 
ceed on  the  assurance  that  the  duty  of  the  presentfully 
met  prepares  for  the  demands  of To-rngxrow. 
^  What  then  are  the  outsTaridtng  needs  of  democracy 
at  this  hour?  If  the  concept  of  democracy  het*e  stated 
is  the  true  one  then  it  is  evident  that  the  old  answers  to 
this  question  are  totally  inadequate.  These  answers  have 
advocated  a  number  of  valuable  additions  to  our  educa- 
tional program,  some  of  which  have  proved  highly  useful. 
They  are  efficient  but  not  sufficient.  We  have  been  urged 
to  extend  "  education  in  citizenship,"  by  which  is  meant, 


EDUCATION  IN  A  DEMOCRACY  13 

usually,  instruction  in  the  mode  of  our  form  of  govern- 
ment, in  its  local  and  state  applications  and  in  its  constitu- 
tional basis  and  present  ideals.  This  needs  to  be  done; 
it  is  a  constantly  imperative  duty  in  a  nation  absorbing 
thousands  of  citizens  from  lands  alien  in  government  and 
ideals.  We  jiuaL  have  a^jcitizjeBAhip—intelligent  as  to 
methoil&_of-px0iSedure.  And  yet  it  takes  more  than  civics 
to  make  a  citizen  anywhere,  and  in  a  democracy  more 
than  anywhere  else. 

We  are  told  that  one  of  the  educational  needs  of  a 
democracy  is  that  the  people  shall  bejbrained  f or^raxtical 
usefulness.  No  one  questions "tlie  value  of  vocational 
training,  provided  it  means  a  vocation  and  a  training  for 
all,  that  it  does  not  mean  the  regimentation  of  the  masses 
to  be  the  earlier  ready  for  drafting  into  the  ranks  of 
industry  and  that  it  does  not  mean  depriving  the  young 
of  their  heritage  of  joy  and  culture  in  order  that  they 
may  acquire  the  habits  of  wage-earning.  But  there  is 
no  assurance  that  industrial  efficiency  will  be  accompanied 
by  competency  to  live  the  social  life  of  a  democracy. 
Learningto  make  a  living  is  part  of  the  art  of  life ;  but 
it  is  only^parE  A  natioiTorexpert  mechanics,  merchants 
and  farmers  would  doubtless  be  better  than  a  nation  of 
untrained  and  shiftless  people;  competency  in  industry 
and  commerce  are  amongst  the  foundations  of  national 
happiness  and  power ;  but  those  competencies  may  develop 
a  people  into  the  very  opposite  of  a  democracy,  into  a 
mere  aggregation  of  groups  each  devoting  its  efficiencies 
to  its  own  ends,  each  seeking  its  own  advantages  and 
thus  developing,  through  unrestrained  competition,  only 
social  anarchy. 

So  slight  a  dismissal  of  these  important  needs  in  educa- 
tion does  not  indicate  an  opinion  that  they  are  valueless. 
They  are  ess_eniial.  They  are  parts  of  the  program  of 
education  for  democracy.  But  they  have  been  so  empha- 
sized as  to  obscure  certain  other  and  yet  more  important 


14  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

parts  without  which  they  are  valueless.  If  democracy  is 
social  organization  for  the  sake  of  the  growth  of  peo- 
ple, for  the  development  of  their  lives  in  a  society,  then 
the  educational  program  must  include  more  than  learning 
the  mechanics  of  government  and  more  than  training  in 
habits  of  self-support.  It  must  include  all  that  is  involved 
in  the  art  of  life  in  a  society.  The  duty  of  a  democracy 
is  to  train  its  people  to  live  in  a  society  devoted  to  the 
good  of  all. 

Education  for  to-morrow's  democracy  will  be  education 
for  the  fullness  of  living  in  society  as  effective,  contribut- 
ing members,  serving  its  ends,  devoted  to  its  ideals,  habit- 
uated to  its  ways  and  trained  to  realize  its  purposes. 
Education  for  to-morrow's  democracy  means  facing  this 
problem:  have  we  the  vision,  can  we  find  the  means  and 
develop  the  agencies  not  only  to  teach  all  how  a  society  of 
common  goodwill  should  be  organized,  but  also,  through 
actual  experience,  to  train  ourselves  and  our  children  in  its 
habits  and  activities,  to  grow  in  vision  of  its  ideals  and  to 
develop  motives  sufficiently  high  and  strong  to  sustain  and 
inspire  in  all  that  may  be  involved  in  its  realization.? 


CHAPTER  II 

DISCOVERING    THE    NEED 

Are  our  present  educational  plans  and  ideals  adequate 
for  democracy  as  it  must  be? "" •^"-"^ 

Education  for  democracy  would  be  a  simple  matter 
under  some  conditions.  It  would  be  proper  to  assume 
that  any  system  of  education  in  a  truly  democratic  society, 
when  taken  along  with  the  experience  of  living  in  that 
society,  would  constitute  adequate  preparation  for  democ- 
racy. Many  complacently  assume  that  this  is  the  happy 
condition  prevailing  in  America.  Popular  orators  have 
stimulated  our  pride  in  democratic  institutions  until  we 
often  dream  that  a  democratic  society  was  created  by 
the  Continental  Congress  and  consummated  by  the  fifteenth 
amendment  to  the  Constitution.  Then  they  point  to  our 
schools  which,  since  they  are  ours,  must  be  the  best  on 
earth;  surely  here  children  receive  all  training  necessary 
for  democracy  for  they  have  courses  in  American  history 
and  civics ;  they  learn  all  about  the  theoretical  machinery 
of  our  political  life!  What  more  could  democracy  need? 
Why  should  we  assume  that  there  is  need  for  some  new 
or  special  type  of  education  in  order  to  prepare  for  the 
future  democracy? 

If  we  have  democracy  to-day  two  results  follow,  First, 
the  very  experience  of  living  in  a  democracy  constitutes 
the  best  preparation  for  that  form  of  social  life;  and, 
Second,  any  true  democracy  will  be  so  conscious  of  its 
requirements  as  to  make  full  and  adequate  provision  for 
the  training  of  the  young.  Both  these  propositions  would 
be  true  if  we  were  now  living  in  a  democracy.  But  we 
,  are  not.     We  have  at  present  only  certain  elements  of 

15 


16  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

democracy,  principally  in  our  forms  of  political  life.  We 
have  some  democratic  institutions,  but  we  do  not  have  a 
democratic  order  of  society.  Rauschenbusch  well  says, 
"  Political  democracy  without  economic  democracy  is  an 
uncashed  promissory  note,  a  pot  without  a  roast,  a  form 
without  substance."  ^  We  cannot  have  such  an  order  so 
long  as  society  permits  avoidable  injustices,  so  long  as 
it  exploits  the  weak,  builds  fortunes  for  the  few  out  of 
the  extremities  and  adversities  of  the  many,  permits  one 
to  reap  where  he  has  not  sown,  to  enjoy  riches  that 
others  have  earned  and  are  not  permitted  to  enjoy,  gives 
larger  rights  to  the  rich  than  to  the  poor  and  continues 
to  regard  the  child  as  largely  a  negligible  social  factor. 
Life  in  the  present  social  order  is  not  an  habituation  to 
democracy,  but  it  is  calculated  to  quicken  hunger  for  it. 

We  have  yet  to  acquire  dcTnocracy,  We  must  teach 
the  practice  of  democracy  because  it  is  an  unrealized 
ideal.  It  cannot  be  learned  in  the  way  that  a  child 
learns  his  forms  of  play  because  at  present  it  is  not 
atmospheric  and  habitual.  We  must  not  confound  our 
current  emphasis  on  the  phrases  of  democracy  with  its 
actual  realization.  We  are  told  many  times  every  day 
that  the  great  war  was  fought  for  democracy.  And,  in 
a  most  important  sense,  this  is  exactly  true;  it  is  the 
price  we  still  are  paying  to  assert  the  dominance  of  human 
rights  over  all  other  considerations.  But  we  must  not 
delude  ourselves  into  thinking  that  because  we  have 
inscribed  democracy  on  our  banners,  and  because  we  are 
paying  a  tremendous  price  for  a  common  international 
recognition  of  one  of  its  simple  tenets,  that,  by  these 
tokens,  we  have  fulfilled  democracy.  Nor  must  we  hope 
that  reiteration  of  these  ideals  will  give  our  children  the 
training  they  need  for  the  democracy  of  to-morrow.  It 
is  easy  to  mistake  the  currency  of  phrases  for  the  reality 
they  represent. 

1 "  Christianizing  the  Social  Order,"  page  353. 


DISCOVERING  THE  NEED  17 

Democracy  waits  for  the  democratic  Timid  and  will. 
We  may  through  the  war  come  to  the  realization  of  . 
a  world  civil  order;  but  democracy's  struggle  will  not  ^  \ 
be  over  even  when  all  political  units  shall  bear  its  name-  ' 
and  use  its  forms.  Democracy  will  not  be  achieved  so 
long  as  men  are  willing  to  use  any  form  of  social  leverage 
—  business,  education,  politics,  religion,  or  the  exigencies 
of  war-times  —  to  secure  advantages  for  themselves  at 
the  price  of  loss  or  deprivation  to  others.  Democracy 
will  not  be  achieved  so  long  as  we  consent  to  the  contin- 
uance of  social  relations  predicated  on  human  selfishness, 
guided  by  competitive  motives  and  resulting  in  social  | 
inequalities  not  determined  by  justice  or  merit.  Democ- 
racy will  not  be  achieved  until  our  minds  have  been 
changed,  until  we  have  repented  of  the  old  ways  that 
brought  us  to  industrial  and  economic  chaos,  until  we 
desire  the  good  of  all  far  more  ardently  than  we  now 
covet  all  the  goods  we  can  get.  Changes  such  as  these 
are  much  more  than  changes  in  government  and  politics ; 
they  are  changes  in  human  ideals  and  motives,  changes 
possible  only  through  the  careful,  intelligent,  long- 
continued  education  of  our  minds  and  wills.  Democracy 
waits  for  a  generation  controlled  by  a  social  view  of  all 
life  and  by  a  common  social  goodwill. 

THE    DEMANDS    OF    NEW    WORLD    LIFE 

But  we  have  one  further  and  highly  important  consid- 
eration ;  that  we  must  have  special  training  for  democracy 
because  the  democracy  of  the  future  zmll  be  of  a  special 
kind.  If  the  society  of  to-morrow  was  to  be  simply  the 
normal  development,  by  easy  and  natural  stages,  of  the 
society  of  to-day  we  might  assert  that  to-day's  experience 
was  the  only  necessary  schooling  for  to-morrow.  But  the 
world  has  broken  with  its  past,  having  tested  and  rejected 
many  of  its  ways ;  social  things  are  being  made  new.  We 
enter  a  new  world  order.     It  will  be  different  because  old 


18  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

methods  have  failed,  old  reliances  have  broken  down,  old 
settled  habits  have  been  uprooted;  old  ways  have  proven 
inadequate;  new  social  alignments  have  appeared;  new 
experiences  have  been  given  to  almost  all  young  people; 
new  powers  have  been  developed  in  peoples;  new  social 
dependencies  have  appeared;  new  forms  of  cooperation 
have  been  tried.  Still  more,  in  the  future,  new  demands 
will  be  made  on  all;  it  will  not  be  enough  to  be  a  good 
man,  one  will  have  to  be  a  man  whose  life  counts  with  all 
other  lives  for  the  world's  good.  It  will  not  be  enough 
that  one  is  honest  in  business,  according  to  the  world's 
customs ;  one  will  have  to  be  honest  according  to  the 
world's  needs.  Men  must  square  their  business,  not  with 
the  ethics  of  the  trade  but  with  the  good  of  humanity. 
Not  only  will  men  demand  their  rights  in  the  worth  of 
living;  we  shall  accept  our  responsibilities  to  secure  to 
each  his  full  rights.  CSoon  we  shall  see  that  so  closely  are 
we  all  bound  in  the  bundle  of  life  that  no  man  can  be 
poor  to  himself,  none  can  be  abject,  hopeless,  oppressed 
to  himself,  that  we  each  have  an  unavoidable  share  in 
the  life  of  the  saddest  and  in  the  suffering  of  all^p  We 
shall  learn  that  no  nation  can  afford  to  have  any  of  its 
people  below  par,  none  can  afford  to  weaken  heart  and 
life  by  unnecessary  suffering,  for  the  people  are  the  nation 
and  the  nation  is  the  people.  We  are  staggered  before 
the  problem  of  the  new  world  with  all  its  changes,  its 
social  reorganization,  its  new  ways  of  thinking;  and  shall 
we  expect  that  our  children  will  be  ready  for  its  life 
unless  we  take  some  special  measures  to  prepare  them? 
Democracy  has  been  m  a  hitter  school  of  experience. 
Democracy  came  to  one  of  its  great  tests  in  the  world 
war.  This  terrible  struggle  demanded  the  utmost  of  every 
people.  It  called  for  the  devotion  of  all  their  resources, 
the  application  of  all  their  energies,  the  development  of 
all  their  efficiencies;  it  demanded  sacrifice  and  cheerful- 
ness in  bearing  losses,  suffering  reverses,  enduring  hard- 


DISCOVERING  THE  NEED  19 

ships  and  facing  death.  All  this,  and  more,  it  asked  in 
the  name  of  the  good  of  humanity,  for  the  sake  of  the 
ultimate  ideals  of  democracy. 

The  testing  of  American  democracy  came  as  soon  as 
the  struggle  passed  from  the  area  of  national  relationships 
to  that  of  human  interests,  when  it  passed  from  a  quarrel 
between  Germany  and  her  neighbors  to  the  defiance  by 
Germany  of  the  rights  of  peoples,  the  laws  of  humanity 
and  the  established  morals  of  civilization.  Then  we  who 
had  preached  and  boasted  so  long  about  the  universal 
brotherhood  of  man  stood  by  and  watched  our  brothers 
being  cruelly  slaughtered,  watched  one  people,  armed  by 
decades  of  stem  application  and  preparation,  coolly  loot 
our  neighbors,  ravage  their  lands,  destroy  their  treasures, 
slay  their  children  and  ravish  their  women.  We  were  slow 
to  see  the  significance  of  the  struggle,  dull  to  the  motives 
that  outweighed  all  other  considerations,  such  as  mixed 
aims  in  the  allied  nations ;  the  one  clear  issue  was  clouded 
by  their  treaties  and  our  traditions,  as  well  as  by  our 
commercial  policies,  and  that  one  issue  was  that  of  human 
rights  over  against  autocratic,  organized  and  brutally 
strong  selfishness.  It  was  an  issue  of  democracy ;  when 
at  last  we  met  it  —  so  late  that  many  of  us  will  long  hang 
our  heads  with  shame  at  the  delay  —  then  we  had  a 
wonderful  experience  in  democratic  national  life.  Two 
features  clearly  appeared:  First,  democracy  justified 
itself  as  responsive  to  ideals.  A  great  tide  of  devotion 
to  ideal  service  swept  over  us.  Men  and  women  gave 
themselves  without  reservation  to  whatever  service  most 
was  needed;  families  gave  sons  and  fathers  with  tearful 
joy,  their  hearts  fixed  on  high  purposes.  Second,  a  com- 
manding purpose  brought  us  into  new  cooperation.  We 
found  unity  in  a  common  loyalty  to  a  suflficiently  high 
enterprise.  In  every  community  the  old  divisions  were 
wiped  out  as  all  toiled,  in  actual  labor,  for  the  common 
cause  of  world  freedom.     We  tasted  the  joys  of  a  common 


20  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

life  under  a  democratic  purpose  to  make  this  a  world  con- 
trolled by  human  rights  and  interests. 

The  events  are  too  near  to  permit  of  proper  perspective. 
The  experience  was  not  all  ideally  perfect.  The  despoiler 
was  present.  There  always  will  be  spiritual  aliens  in  a 
democracy;  often  they  are  the  ones  who  prate  most  of 
citizenship.  But  food-exploiters,  tax-dodgers,  slackers, 
and  profiteering  princes  only  stood  out  in  greater  contrast 
to  popular  devotion  and  service.  They  were  but  evidences 
of  the  dangers  incident  to  democracy,  as  crime  is  incident 
to  the  law.  They  indicated  that  we  had  failed  to  furnish 
society  the  power  to  relieve  itself  of  the  real  enemies  of 
democracy.  But  there  were,  even  in  the  joy  of  our  dis- 
covery of  common  ideals  and  common  service,  frequent 
stirrings  of  conscience  to  ask,  why  had  we  waited  for 
this  strain  to  reveal  the  possibilities  of  democracy?  Why 
had  we  failed,  in  the  normal  days  of  prosperity  and  world 
calm,  to  develop  the  commanding  ideals,  train  in  the 
loyalties  and  furnish  the  controls  of  conduct  which  would 
guide  all  persons  ?  Here  we  seemed  to  fail  as  a  whole ; 
it  raised  the  question  whether  democracy  had  educated  for 
permanent  moral  and  spiritual  living. 

We  had  developed  the  danger  of  perverted  patriotism. 
We  had  cultivated  a  patriotism  of  national  pride  instead 
of  one  of  national  devotion  to  purposes  greater  than  the 
nation.  We  had  been  proud  of  democracy  because  it 
afforded  freedom  of  personal  action,  a  chance  for  greater 
rewards  in  personal  possessions  than  was  possible  in  other 
nations.  We  contrasted  ourselves  with  autocracy  not  at 
the  point  of  effectiveness  in  government  for  the  sake  of 
people,  not  as  to  the  permanent  treasures  of  national 
greatness  in  idealism,  but  at  the  point  of  individual  riches. 
We  had  hidden  our  ideals  and  exhibited  our  efficiencies  in 
making  and  keeping  things.  In  a  word,  to  a  large  degree, 
we  had  lost  sight  of  the  real  ends  of  democracy.  We  had  ^ 
turned  this  social  agency  for  developing  people  into   g. 


DISCOVERING  THE  NEED  21 

machinery  for  making  goods,  for  selling  goods  and  making 
fortunes. 

MISDIRECTED    EFFICIENCIES 

Temporarily  democracy  had  misdirected  its  efficiencies. 
It  thought  of  people  in  terms  of  business  instead  of  busi- 
ness in  terms  of  people.  It  had  listened  to  voices  from 
Prussia,  voices  which  had  been  vested  with  authority  in 
our  universities  and  confided  with  responsibilities  in  civic 
life,  voices  which  practically  said,  "  Man  lives  by  bread 
alone,  therefore  organize  all  your  society  into  grades  of 
bread-winners  and  bend  all  your  energies  to  securing  their 
bread-winning  efficiency.'^  We  had  imported  large 
elements  of  our  educational  system  from  Germany;  these 
elements  were  rapidly  and  deliberately  crowding  out  all 
that  was  not  of  their  world  of  things.  They  declared  that 
aloiie^  scientific  which  could  be  measured  spatially.  Their 
teachers  were  blinded  to  all  that  could  not  be  seen.  They 
were  fast  making  us  think  of  civic  life  as  a  vast,  intricate, 
soulless  machine,  wonderfully  efficient,  smooth- running  and 
serving  wholly  material  ends  of  power  and  wealth.  We 
became  ashamed  of  our  earlier  idealism;  it  belonged  to  a 
pioneer  stage,  to  an  earlier  day  when  men  were  willing  to 
be  misled  by  dreams.  We  had  found  more  efficient  ways ; 
we  could  handle  this  human  material  as  we  would  handle 
any  other  material.  Who  does  not  remember  the  period 
of  the  "  efficiency  engineer  "  who  not  only  had  his  place- 
in  the  factory  but  was  called  to  the  school  and  to  civic 
life  to  regulate  its  affairs  ?  Their  systems  were  efficient ; 
but  they  were  deficient;  they  failed  to  take  into  account 
all  the  factors.  They  were  practical-minded ;  having  lost 
nine-tenths  of  their  minds  —  the  powers  of  idealism,  of 
recognizing  spiritual  values  —  they  capitalized  what  was 
left. 

A  democracy/  is  always  in  da/nger  of  losing  its  soul. 
It  develops  a  system  and  forgets  the  spirit  and  aim  for 


22  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

which  the  system  exists.  Democracy  is  not  a  system  with 
a  soul ;  it  is  a  soul  which  works  out  its  system.  Democracy 
is  in  the  whole  what  man  should  be  in  the  singular.  Men 
build  barns  and  business  because  of  their  needs  as  men, 
but  in  time  the  barns  and  business  becoming  so  engrossing 
that  they  think  of  building  men  because  barns  and  business 
need  them.  In  any  intricate  system  tools  always  have  a 
tendency  to  relegate  the  product  to  a  secondary  place. 
Left  to  themselves  through  the  calm  summer  days,  when 
the  crops  mature  so  plentifully,  it  seems  as  though  life's 
aim  was  filling  barns.  Then  later  speaks  the  voice  at 
midnight,  "  Thou  fool !  This  night  thy  soul  is  required 
of  thee." 

We  looked  out  on  nations  that  heard  that  voice.  They 
answered  flinging  all  their  treasure  into  the  struggle  that 
the  soul  might  be  saved.  All  that  they  had  so  painfully 
gathered  together  they  counted  for  naught  that  human 
rights  might  be  saved,  that  men  might  be  free.  We  saw 
them  recklessly  spending  for  an  idea  the  very  treasures  we 
had  been  so  successful  in  gathering,  and  we  were  not  yet 
ready  to  forsake  our  bursting  barns  in  order  to  save  our 
souls.  We  at  first  refuse  to  see  that  we  must  either  turn 
aside  from  business  as  usual  or  lose  ourselves  altogether. 

L^  Democracy  has  tested  the  educational  method.  Now 
when  the  time  came  that  we  were  compelled  to  stand  either 
with  free  men  or  be  slaves,  when  we  must  choose  either 
to  serve  ideal  ends  or  to  be  sold  into  bondage,  what  steps 
were  taken  to  secure  unity  of  ideal  action  in  the  democ- 
racy.^ None  who  lived  through  the  first  years  of 
America's  participation  in  the  war  will  ever  forget  the 
tremendous  eflTorts,  on  a  national  scale,  to  stimulate  and 
direct  the  thought  and  feeling  and  action  of  the  people. 
In  a  word,  we  depended  on  an  educational  program.  It 
was  a  program  of  teaching  through  publicity  in  news- 
papers, magazines,  the  pulpit,  schools,  bill-boards,  the 
theatres,  the  platform  and  the  mail.     We  found  out  that 


DISCOVERING  THE  NEED  23 

it  was  necessary  to  form  the  minds  of  people,  that  we 
could  make  no  progress  save  as  the  wills  of  men  and 
women  were  moved.  "  Wake  up,  America !  "  we  shouted, 
and  America  slept  on.  Then  we  began  to  teach  America, 
and  she  was  awakened.  A  thorough  campaign  of  educa- 
tion not  only  secured  national  unity  of  action  but,  what 
was  vastly  more  important,  it  secured  unity  of  feeling  and 
sentiment  on  a  high  level  for  the  nation's  ideals. 

Standing  in  the  midst  of  the  great  events  it  is  evident 
that  the  method  which  has  succeeded  in  meeting  an  imme- 
diate urgency  is  the  method  we  have  neglected  all  too  long. 
We  have  not  educated  the  nation  for  democracy.  Our 
system  and  plans  of  education  have  not  been  determined 
by  the  needs  of  the  present,  still  less  by  the  demands  of 
the  future,  but  by  the  traditions  of  the  past.  We  have 
inherited  our  educational  practice  from  aristocracy,  and 
we  have  imported  parts  of  it  from  autocracy.  It  has  not 
been  designed  for  democracy.  The  schools  did  not  regard 
the  child  as  a  potential  socially  responsible  self-governing 
factor  in  the  life  of  the  state.  ^  They  trained  in  aptitudes 
which  had  no  special  reference  to  those  forms  of  social 
cooperation  and  service  which  are  essential  in  a  democratic 
society.  They  taught  civics  which  differed  from  mon- 
archy or  autocracy  only  in  form  and  not  in  purpose  or 
spirit,  failing  to  reveal  the  soul  of  democracy.  Above 
all  they  failed  to  develop  the  ideals  and  motives  which,  in 
the  individual,  make  a  democracy  possible. 

Moreover,  we  have  been  under  the  necessity  of  effecting 
certain  fundamental  changes  in  the  habitual  thinking  of 
large  elements  in  our  population,  of  changing  their  ideals 
and  concepts.  Intellectually  we  are  in  a  singular  position 
in  regard  to  democracy.  It  is  conceived  as  a  form  of 
government,  but  all  our  inherited  ideas  as  to  governments 
place  them  in  the  category  of  imposed  institutions.     The 

iSee  George  A.  Coe  on  "The  Functions  of  Children  in  a  Com- 
munity," in  ReligiotLS  Education  for  February,  1918. 


S4  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

words,  "  state  "  and  "  government,"  hold  meanings  almost 
wholly  either  monarchial  or  feudal.  They  create  a  picture 
of  some  overhead  authority.  The  delusion  that  a  few 
were  bom  to  rule  and  the  many  to  serve  has  been  ground 
deep  into  the  fiber  of  civilized  thought.  Monarchy  in 
some  form  or  another  dies  a  lingering  death.  The  very 
phrase  "  divine  right  of  kings "  is  so  old  that  it  still 
carries  the  authority  of  usage  to  many.  Therefore,  when 
we  speak  of  a  democratic  government  we  tend  to  think  of 
something  outside  ourselves,  a  power  which,  while  created 
by  ourselves,  has  its  seat  and  authority  elsewhere.  It  is 
difficult  to  keep  clearly  in  mind  the  fact  that  "  we,  the 
people  "  are  the  state,  the  government  and  the  democracy. 

This  intellectual  concept  of  an  external  authority  ruling 
over  us  is  deeply  rooted  in  those  who  were  bom  under 
monarchies  and  autocracies.  They  know  that  they  arc 
now  in  a  democratic  state,  but  they  think  of  themselves 
as  being  wnder  a  democracy,  just  as  formerly  they  were 
under  a  monarchy,  instead  of  realizing  that  they  are  not 
under  but  in,  not  yielding  service  to  but  yielding  them- 
selves to  that  of  which  they  are  a  part.  The  radical 
educational  problem  with  such  minds  is  to  get  them  to 
see  the  real  meaning  of  democracy,  to  help  them  realize 
their  identity  with  it.  Democracy  must  be  transferred 
from  the  old  grouping  of  governments  —  where  it  is  a 
better  and  freer  kind  of  lordship  —  into  a  new  class,  that 
of  social  self-determination. 

These  facts  accounted  for  no  small  degree  of  our 
lethargy  and  apparent  indifference.  They  called  and 
they  still  call  for  a  process  of  interpreting  democracy 
within  our  own  borders.  They  complicated  the  problem 
of  national  conversion.  We  faced  a  world-testing  of 
democracy  with  a  citizenship  one-half  of  which  rejoiced 
in  freedom  principally  because  of  the  personal  advantages 
it  conferred  and  a  large  portion  of  which  knew  not  at 
all  what  democracy  really  means. 


DISCOVERING  THE  NEED  ^5 

Education  must  recognize  that  democracy  makes  certain 
peculiar  demands  on  human  nature.  Since  the  educational 
system  is  responsible  for  training  the  members  of  a  democ- 
racy it  is  responsible  for  preparing  them  to  meet  those 
demands.  Since  all  human  relationships  constitute  moral 
situations  democracy  is  a  moral  situation  determined  by 
motives  of  social  interests  as  supreme.  Education  for 
democracy  is  not  only  education  for  social  living,  it  is 
education  for  living  under  conditions  in  which  the  interests 
of  society,  of  the  well-being  and  happiness  of  the  whole 
must  always  take  precedence  of  our  own  personal  interests 
and  desires.  This  is  true  if  democracy  is  self-government 
for  the  people.  Education  for  democracy,  then,  is  educa- 
tion for  social  living  under  social  motives. 


ESSENTIALS    IN    EDUCATION 


iNo  scheme  or  system  of  educ^tifin  rnr  ^^  o/ioqiiQf£>  cr^ 
long  as  it  fails  to  recognize  these  two  related  facts,  that 
it  must  train  the  young  to  live  in  society,  and  that  it 
must  train  them  in  the  motive  and  ideal  of  self-devotion 
to  the  good  of  society.  There  are  involved  here  the  two 
related  and  inseparable  ideas  of  social  education  and 
religious  education.  Education  for  democracy  will  be 
social  education  in  that  it  trains  lives  to  live  with  others ; 
it  will  be  religious  education  in  that  it  trains  lives  to 
live  for  others.  Neither  is  possible  without  the  other. 
We  cannot  live  with  people  except  as  we  really  love  them ; 
we  cannot  love  them  until  we  do  live  with  them. 
yT;t  may  be  said  that  all  these  considerations  lie  in  the 
realm  of  sentiments  and  ideals.  The  assumption  under- 
lying the  objection  is  that  sentiments  and  ideals  are  unreal 
and  negligible  matters  and  that  education  has  to  do  only 
with  the  practical  concerns  of  life.  It  is  a  part  of  that 
leaden-eyed  philosophy  which  sees  only  the  ground  at  a 
man's  toes.  Such  objectors  are  apt  to  say  that  we  must 
face  the  stern  realities  of  life  and  leave  theory  and  ideals 


/ 

26  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

to  take  care  of  themselves.  But  ideals  are  not  theories; 
they  are  the  underlying  facts  which  determine  all  things 
in  this  world;  they  make  cities,  build  bridges,  lead  armies 

^.  and  really  do  all  the  big  things.  Your  practical  man 
never  gets  beyond  the  plans  the  idealist  has  sketched. 
And  sentiments  are  not  vapory  nothings ;  they  are  the 
stem  realities  of  life;  they  are  its  motive  power  and  its 
compass.  They  make  all  social  motion  and  determine  its 
direction.  Our  constant  danger  is  that  we  shall  neglect 
these  realities,  that  we  shall  build  engines  complete  in  all 
details  except  that  they  will  not  work  because  they  lack 
motive  power.  We  think  we  are  practical  because  we 
build  the  apparatus  of  life  and  neglect  altogether  its 
springs  of  action. 

The  need  of  education  for  democracy,  then,  is  that  we 
shall  fully  recognize  the  essential  importance  of  developing 
right  sentiments  and  ideals,  that  we  shall  not  neglect  what 
Bismarck  called  "  the  imponderables."  The  testing  time 
has  revealed  our  deep  need  of  a  spiritual  consciousness  in 
civil  and  political  life.  The  war  has  been  won ;  whether 
the  winning  will  be  worth  while  depends  on  the  kind  of 
men  and  women  we  are  and  the  kind  our  children  shall 
be.  v^The  preparation  we  most  of  all  have  needed  and  do 
still  need  is  the  preparation  of  our  minds  with  high  ideals, 
the  training  of  our  spirits  to  such  an  appreciation  of 
the  worth  of  human  interests  as  shall  move  us  to  pay 
.any  price  for  their  preservation.  V^ We  need  to  realize  that, 

V  like  democracy  itself,  education  for  democracy  deals  with 
persons,  and  that  persons  are  not  educated  until  they 
develop  their  powers  as  persons,  until  controls  of  conduct 
are  developed,  until  they  have  the  powers  of  self-knowledge 
and  self-control,  until  they  have  the  vision  of  life  that 
guides  them  into  its  social  fullness.  Because  these  needs 
have  been  so  largely  neglected  it  would  seem  that  the 
emphasis  in  our  educational  endeavors  at  this  time  should 
b^  in  the  direction  of  training^  hi  life  for  i(Je?il  ends,  in 


DISCOVERING  THE  NEED  27 

the  education  of  persons  as  social  beings  living  for  social 
ends,  or,  in  a  word,  on  religious  education  in  its  broad 
aspects. 

This  then  is  the  need  of  democracy :  A  motive  or  spirit 
of  life  which  makes  it  possible  and  desirable  for  us  to  live 
with  others  and  to  live  for  others.  Democracy  depends 
on  the  social  will  that  substitutes '  cooperation  for  com- 
petitive struggle.  Democracy  requires  devotion  to  the 
good  of  all  as  the  supreme  and  dominating  purpose  in  all 
lives.  Under  no  other  motives  is  it  possible  to  live  in 
the  congested,  interwoven  world  life.  It  is  not  a  question 
of  which  is  best;  this  only  is  possible.  Any  other  way 
lies  the  unending  conflict  of  selfish  passions  pushing  the 
warring  groups  on  to  social  suicide.  The  world  is  par- 
alyzed so  long  as  it  is  ruled  by  passions  for  greed,  "  red 
in  tooth  and  claw,"  for  this  world  is  other  thahihe  world 
of  beasts.  Man  needs  sympathy,  the  things  not  gained 
by  strength  alone,  for  he  lives  not  by  bread  alone.  For 
the  very  continuance  of  human  existence,  and  certainly 
for  its  progress,  no  other  way  is  possible  than  that  of 
social  unity  secured  by  common  devotion  to  ideal  pur- 
poses. Only  the  religious  will  survive  in  the  new  world 
order.  Then  the  central  need  in  education  for  democracy 
is  that  of  education  in  the  life  that  is  religious,  is  that 
of  training  in  the  spirit  of  devotion  to  a  society  of  good 
will,  is  that  of  religious  education. 


CHAPTER  III 

DEMOCRACY    AS   A    SJEIUGIOUS    IDEAL 

As  the  ideals  of  democracy  are  clarified  they  are  ele- 
vated. Government  for  the  people  is  lifted  above  the 
aims  of  government  for  national  advantages,  for  the 
extension  of  trade  or  for  the  increase  of  reserves  of  wealth. 
Some  old  motives  lose  their  power  and  others,  yet  older, 
return  with  deeper  meaning;  America  says  less  about  the 
opportunity  of  every  man  to  gain  riches  and  thinks  more 
of  the  obligations  of  freedom. 

Democracy,  seeking  the  good  of  all,  discovers  that  no 

good  is  abiding  until  all  enjoy  the  highest  good,  and  that 

no   people   can  be   rich   in   things   in    any    satisfying   or 

enduring    manner    until    they    are    rich    in    themselves. 

Democracy  realizes  that  nations  are  never  greater  than 

their  people,  and  that  social  welfare  is  at  root  a  matter 

of  social  will.     Every  attempt  to  secure  public  good  by 

popular  means  leads   to   the  same   conclusion:   that   the 

happiness,  freedom  and  well-being  of  a  people  comes  not 

by  regulation,  nor  by  legislation,  but  all  wait  on  the  wills 

of  men  and  cannot  come  save  from  within  the  hearts  and 

minds  of  men.     This  is  not  a  speculative  philosophy  of 

idealism  preached  by  a  few  doctrinaires ;  it  is  the  bald 

fact  which  confronts  every  student  of  social  institutions, 

that  human  progress  waits  for  the  human  will,  that  there 

is  no  such  thing  as  the  prosperity  of  a  people  until  they 

are  rich  and  strong  in  themselves.     A  democracy  is   a 

social  organization,  in  a  civic  form,  which  accepts  this 

law  and  counts  principally  on  the  quality  of  its  people 

for  the  power  of  its  state. 

The  central  interest  of  democracy,  then,  lies  in  peo- 

28 


DEMOCRACY  AS  A  RELIGIOUS  IDEAL      29 

pie  (IS  persons.  Its  aim  is  not  only  government  by  the 
will  of  the  people  but  government  by  the  goodwill  of 
all,  by  the  power  of  the  people  constantly  willing  the 
highest  good  for  all.  Its  central  problem  is  that  of  devel- 
oping this  will,  of  securing  desire,  intent  and  purpose 
toward  the  social  ideals  of  the  state.  Its  task,  therefore, 
is  one  of  education,  of  training  persons  in  the  power  of 
self-direction  toward  broad  social  ideals,  of  developing 
social  wisdom  and  power  of  choosing  steadily  the  highest 
good  in  life.  Unless  this  power  is  developed  our  freedom 
will  mean  but  a  wild  scramble  for  passing  gains,  a  common 
and  bloody  warfare  in  which  each  madly  strives  for  his 
own  goods.  Some  have  so  interpreted  democracy,  as  the 
chance  of  every  man  to  enter  with  all  his  powers  into 
the  common,  competitive  combat  for  the  possession  of 
things.  Sometimes  we  have  gloried  in  the  supposed  right 
of  social  civil  war,  of  internal  rapine.  We  have  talked 
of  the  glorious  chance  open  to  every  one  of  becoming  rich 
at  the  expense  of  his  fellows,  of  the  chance  of  the  poor 
boy  to  climb  from  the  slums  to  the  crest  of  affluence  as 
though  elevation  enlarged  a  man.  We  seem  to  have 
imagined  that  a  mouse  on  the  peak  of  a  mountain  must 
be  a  mammoth.  But  the  delusion  is  less  common  than 
the  superficial  evidences  indicate.  We  make  much  over 
the  feat  of  the  mouse;  but  we  know  that  our. democracy 
exists  for  something  far  greater  than  the  purpose  of 
populating  the  peaks  of  prosperity  with  freaks,  men  of 
swollen  substance  and  shrunken  souls.  And  we  are  learn- 
ing, too,  that  the  glory  of  a  nation  lies  not  in  its  records 
of  sudden  fortunes  but  in  its  steady  development  of  the 
common  good. 

In  the  hearts  of  men  are  the  facts  of  life.  Every 
page  of  the  past  and  every  problem  of  the  present  pro- 
claims the  same  fact,  that  neither  with  a  man  nor  a 
nation  does  life  consist  in  the  abundance  of  things 
possessed,  that  happiness  lies  not  in  having  but  in  the 


80  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

power  of  appreciating  and  enjoying,  that  riches  are  not 
possessed  by  the  hands  but  by  the  heart,  and  that  no 
nation  can  be  great  unless  the  people  themselves  are 
j  great.  The  glory  of  a  nation  depends  not  on  extent  of 
[  I  territory,  nor  on  resources  or  possessions,  nor  on  army 
■  or  navy  or  factories  or  trade,  but  on  the  minds  and 
affections  and  ideals  of  its  people.  Belgium  devastated 
*  is  greater  than  Belgium  humming  with  industry.  France 
"  bled  white "  under  the  pressure  of  barbarism  recni- 
descent  is  greater  than  France  in  her  prosperity.  Scot- 
land's granite  hills,  with  all  their  beauty,  offer  little  to 
the  seeker  after  riches,  but  Scotland's  name  will  always 
be  associated  with  true  greatness.  All  stand  out  known 
by  their  souls. 

A  soidless  democracy  is  unthinkable.  When  a  gov- 
ernment is  deliberately  organized  with  the  purpose  of 
A  protecting,  strengthening  and  enriching  the  life  of  its 
people,  its  first  and  always  dominating  concern  must  be 
with  the  inner  concerns  of  their  lives,  with  their  well- 
being  in  aill  that  makes  a  people  great.  The  problem 
of  democracy  is  a  spiritual  problem.  Democracy  seeks 
the  salvation  of  the  souls  of  men  in  the  widest,  highest, 
fullest  sense,  for  democracy  ultimately  seeks  the  salvation 
of  society.  It  looks  toward  a  salvation  greater  than 
any  designed  to  protect  individuals  from  the  arbitrary 
dictates  of  an  offended  deity,  a  salvation  which  brings 
each  one  out  into  the  freedom  and  fullness  of  all  his  life, 
and  into  the  joy  and  power  of  the  life  of  all.  It  is  a 
salvation  directed  toward  character  and  condition  rather 
than  toward  any  theoretical  status.  Democracy  believes 
that  life  may  be  whole,  healthful,  rounded-out  and  rich, 
that  its  inner  springs  may  be  clear  and  strong,  that  men 
may  come  to  will  the  true  rather  than  the  false,  light 
rather  than  darkness  and  love  rather  than  hate.  It 
knows  that  truth  and  light  and  love  will  not  bless  the 
lives  of  all  until  they  command  the  desires  and  wills  of 


DEMOCRACY  AS  A  RELIGIOUS  IDEAL      SI 

all.  Therefore  a  democracy  must  be  concerned  with 
deeper  things  than  political  forms  and  commercial  suc- 
cesses, for  its  permanence  depends  on  the  extent  to  which 
its  ideals  rule  in  the  hearts  of  men.  How  serious  and 
far-reaching,  then,  is  the  program  of  education  for  democ- 
racy !  It  is  no  less  than  the  development  of  those  motives, 
powers  and  habits  which  enable  all  to  live  a  common  life 
of  helpfulness,  of  fellowship  on  life's  highest  levels,  in 
the  fullness  of  all  its  possibilities,  under  its  finest  motives 
and  toward  its  best  ideals.  This  is  the  fundamental 
educational  problem  that  confronts  democracy.  Is  it  too 
much  to  call  it  a  spiritual  problem  .^^  Can  we  not  see  it 
as  a  religious  task.'^ 

Democracy  is  a  spiritiuzl  process.  Education  for  this 
form  of  social  living  moves  out  into  a  broad  region. 
Democrats  are  not  made  by  passing  an  examination  on 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  The  law  may 
say  that  citizenship  is  acquired  by  such  a  process,  but 
the  law  does  no  more  than  confer  certain  civil  rights;  it 
cannot  endow  the  citizen  with  those  qualities  which  make 
citizenship  in  a  democracy.  For  a  democracy  is  not  an 
affair  of  a  social  contract,  based  on  rights  granted  by 
authority;  it  is  an  affair  of  the  spirit.  It  can  exist 
only  where  men  and  women  have  common  spiritual  ideals, 
where  they  effectively  place  the  values  of  persons  first 
of  all  and  are  willing  to  pay  any  price  for  these.  It  is 
a  matter  of  the  spirit  because  it  exists  for  the  sake  of 
our  spiritual  rights.  We  speak  of  freedom  as  our 
heritage;  what  do  we  mean?  Is  it  that  we  have  liberty 
of  action,  to  go  where  we  will  and,  largely,  to  do  what 
we  wish?  That  were  a  small  gain.  We  mean  that  we 
have  freedom  to  follow  the  desires  of  our  own  hearts,  to 
achieve  our  own  ambitions,  to  dream  high  things  and  then 
to  do  them.  It  is  not  physical  freedom  we  cherish,  but 
freedom  of  the  spirit.  Above  all,  this  is  a  land  of  free- 
dom of  thought;   our  freedom  of   action  is   simply   our 


^ 


S2  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

right  to  follow  in  action  the  free  path  marked  out  by 

the  spirit  within.     Education  for  democracy  is  possible 

only  as  provision  is  made  for  the  direction  of  this  spir- 
itual freedom. 

SPIRITUAL    VALUES    OUT    OF    SOCitALj    EXPtERIElNCE 

Education  for  democracy  is  a  spiritual  problem  because 
it  deals  with  the  great  questions  of  social  values.  It  seeks 
to  train  people  to  living  for  the  highest  social  ends.  A 
democracy  is  the  political  discovery  of  the  highest  form 
of  values  in  civil  organization.  Having  rejected  the  aims 
of  personal  prestige,  commercial  or  military  dominion, 
territory  and  tribute,  the  democratic  nation  says,  "  We 
find  the  good  that  is  highest,  the  value  most  worth  while, 
in  the  lives  of  persons  and  in  the  life  of  society."  Here 
is  a  splendid  ideal,  seen  long  ago  by  a  few  prophetic  souls, 
sung  by  poets  and  prophets  and  now  adopted,  simply  and 
definitely,  as  a  national  aim.  Democracy  is  a  national 
assertion  of  the  rights  of  the  soul,  for  this  well-being  that 
is  sought  for  all  people  is  the  well-being  of  the  people 
themselves.  It  is  the  devotion  of  a  nation  to  the  devel- 
opment of  wealth  in  persons.  To  a  democracy  all  pros- 
perity of  wages,  high  standards  of  living  conditions,  and 
^  amplitudes  of  resources  are  but  means  to  a  further  end, 
that  those  who  possess  these  things  may  be  richer  in 
themselves,  happier,  stronger  and  more  noble  in  spirit. 

Democracy  becomes  a  national  faith.  It  is  not  diffi- 
cult to  see  how  this  high  spiritual  idealism  has  grown  out 
of  Christianity  and  now  fuses  with  it  at  every  point 
where  it  is  set  free  to  declare  its  meaning  and  value  for 
life.  It  is  not  difficult  to  see  how  it  is  becoming  the 
inspiring  creed  of  thoughtful  men  and  women  everywhere 
to-day.  Its  hope  is  that  which  makes  life's  struggle  worth 
while.  It  is  the  shining  goal  at  the  end  of  all  our  endeav- 
ors for  social  justice,  for  right  conditions  of  living  for 
all  persons,  for  sunlight  and  air  and  play  for  children. 


DEMOCRACY  AS  A  RELIGIOUS  IDEAL      33 

for  leisure  and  health  for  men  and  women,  for  intelligence 
and  knowledge  for  all,  for  freedom  and  personal  rights. 
The  high  price  we  pay  to  oppose  barbaric  autocracy,  the 
trains  of  treasure  and  rivers  of  blood  that  flow  forth  in 
a  great  world  war,  go  out  with  no  regret  —  save  that 
for  the  hideous  origin  and  the  barbaric  method  imposed 
on  us  —  but  with  hearts  made  strong  through  the  hope 
that  we  may  have  a  world-order  of  true  democracy,  that 
the  rights  of  the  spirit  may  be  set  above  all  other  rights 
and  become  regnant  in  our  world. 

Democracy  waits  on  the  educated  wills  of  aU.  A 
democratic  nation  and  a  democratic  world  cannot  come 
alone  through  the  splendid  vision  of  a  few.  It  does  begin 
here;  but  it  must  move  on  until  all  at  last  have  the 
vision.  This  makes  the  diff^erence  of  our  modern  concept 
from  Plato's  Republic.  His  ideal  is  an  elaborate  organ- 
ization intellectually  conceived  by  a  few  and  not  concerned 
with  the  mass.  For  democracy  is  not  only  social  organ- 
ization for  the  good  of  all,  but  social  organization  for 
that  end  as  determined  by  the  will  of  all  and  secured 
through  the  work  of  all.  The  ideal  cannot  be  fully 
realized  until  it  is  seen  and  desired  by  all.  The  people, 
as  well  as  the  prophets,  must  have  the  vision.  The 
inclusive  educational  task  therefore  is  that  of  training 
and  inspiring  a  people  to  a  democratic  interpretation  of 
all  life. 

If  democratic  living  is  based  on  the  primacy  of  spir- 
itual values  then  its  first  need  will  be  an  intelligent  recog- 
nition and  appreciation  of  spiritual  values  and  its  first 
duties  will  be  those  of  training  in  living  for  those  values ; 
in  a  word,  democracy  is  confronted  by  a  problem  and  task 
of  religious  education.  Democracy  is  essentially  a 
religious  enterprise  because  the  social  ends  to  which  democ- 
racy is  devoted  are  the  values  in  persons  and  in  society, 
the  values  of  the  spirit  to  which  religion  is  addressed.  A 
religious  person  is  one  whose  life  is  devoted,  under  the 


34  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

ideal  of  such  values,  to  realizing  a  society  of  the  spirit, 
a  social  order,  a  "  kingdom  of  God  '*  in  which  love, 
righteousness,  peace  and  goodness  are  the  ruling  powers, 
in  which  men  become  more  and  more  like  their  divine  ideal 
and  the  world  more  and  more  like  the  splendid  vision  for 
which  men  so  long  have  prayed.  And  a  religious  society 
is  that  which  is  devoted  to  the  realization  of  this  ideal 
through  its  forms  of  social  or  civic  life  and  power.  Sub- 
stitute "  democratic  "  for  the  word  "  religious  "  and  the 
parallel  between  the  two  becomes  apparent. 

In  a  democracy  the  swpremacy  of  the  spiritual  must 
he  a  common  ideal,  A  common  social  goodwill  rises  only 
in  the  wills  of  all.  The  fundamental  problem  is  that  of 
developing  a  spiritual  concept  of  life  in  all.  If  we  resolve 
the  question  of  education  for  democracy  into  a  discussion 
of  the  problems  of  religious  education  it  is  because  this 
includes  all  the  rest.  It  is  because  religious  education 
simply  means  that  kind  of  education  which  trains  persons 
to  live,  as  religious  persons,  in  a  religious  society  and  to 
realize  the  ideals  of  that  society  and  carry  them  forward 
into  the  future. 

We  cannot  solve  modern  world  problems  until  they  are 
treated  as  religious  problems.  So  long  as  they  are  mat- 
ters to  be  adjusted  by  diplomacy,  by  legislation  or 
regulation  their  roots  remain  untouched.  Social  solutions 
cannot  come  by  adjustments  of  any  sort,  for  social  prob- 
lems are  problems  of  people  and  people  are  not  things; 
they  cannot  be  fitted  together  and  adjusted  like  inorganic 
particles  of  matter.  No  solutions  are  permanent  until 
they  come  from  the  people  themselves,  by  the  modification 
of  their  wills,  by  the  growing  harmony  of  their  own  desires 
and  aims.  That  is  simply  to  say  that  the  problems  of 
democracy,  like  the  aim  of  democracy,  are  personal.  It 
was  a  homely  form  of  expressing  a  fundamental  truth  that 
Josh  Billings  used  when  he  said,  "  You  will  never  have 
an  honest  horse-race  until  you  have  an  honest  human 


DEMOCRACY  AS  A  RELIGIOUS  IDEAL      35 

race."     Society  will  not  be   right  until   the  people   are 
right. 

Social  rightness  is  that  of  which  ancient  teachers  spoke, 
righteousness,  a  matter  of  the  motives  and  will.  Social 
welfare  depends  on  social  willing  of  the  right,  the  good 
and  the  mutually  helpful.  And  this  means  that  men 
must  not  only  know  the  right ;  they  must  love  it  ardently, 
desire  it  supremely  and  serve  it  faithfully.  Herein  lies 
the  function  of  religion,  to  so  interpret  life  that  men  see 
the  good  and  the  true,  that  they  discover  and  acquire 
adequate  motives,  that  their  desires  are  stimulated  so 
that  they  count  dear  nothing  beside  if  only  there  may  be 
realized  the  splendid  ideal  of  social  good,  of  the  love  of 
men,  and  their  life  in  an  ideal  family  of  the  divine. 

Education  for  democracy  is  education  in  the  religious 
life,  in  living  in  and  for  the  sake  of  a  society  that  real-  ,  ^ 
izes  the  divine  ideal  of  a  common  life  of  love  and  serv-V 
ice.  The  modern  democratic  ideal  comes  steadily  closer 
to  the  fundamental  ideal  of  the  Christian  religion,  that 
men  may  live  together  as  one  great  family.  It  accepts 
the  religious  concept  that  it  is  possible  to  have  a  so- 
ciety in  which  the  spiritual  relationships  are  the  dom- 
inant ones.  It  accepts  the  teaching  that  we  should  call 
all  men  our  brothers,  basing  our  relationships,  not  on 
the  accidents  of  rank  or  wealth  or  blood,  but  on  the  un- 
changing fact  of  the  common  life  of  the  spirit  in  which 
we  find  ourselves  all  of  one  family. 

Therefore  education  for  democracy  is  education  in  the 
life  of  the  world-family.     It  is   our   attempt   to-day   to 
answer  the  prayer  we  have  so  long  addressed,  not  to  a 
king,  but  to  a  Father,  "  Thy  Kingdom  come  " ;  the  prayer,     j 
not  for  a  divine  monarchy,  but  for  a  common  family  under    l!} 
the  divine  fatherhood.     Ideally  a  family  is  a  social  insti-     ;■ 
tution  founded  on   self-giving  love   and   devoted   to   the  I] 
giving  of  lives  to  the  world  and  their  development  in  the 
world,     Its  causes  for  being,  if  it  has  any  sound  and  ;ij 


86  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

enduring  basis,  are  spiritual.  Its  purpose,  if  it  is  to  be 
redeemed  from  sensuality  and  from  sordid  selfishness,  must 
be  spiritual,  that  children  may  grow  as  persons,  may  find 
their  full  world  and  be  able  to  live  in  it.^  A  democracy 
is  an  extension  of  this  smaller  ideal  society.  It  is  a 
larger  family,  not  governed  by  some  splendid  paternal 
leader,  for  a  family  is  not  governed  by  a  leader,  but,  like 
every  good  family,  governed  by  a  common  will  of  goodness 
and  love. 

Democracy  involves  hwmanity^s  sternest  discipline. 
Living  together  in  love  —  that  is,  paying  the  full  measure 
of  the  identification  of  our  own  lives  with  the  good  of 
all  other  lives  —  is  a  wonderfully  beautiful  concept  but 
a  terribly  difficult  task.  It  is  not  easy  even  in  a  family 
where  many  instincts  aid  and  where  education  has  been 
strengthening  the  will  from  the  very  beginning.  It  is 
infinitely  harder  in  the  larger  human  family,  composed  of 
all  kinds  of  people,  likable  and  otherwise,  good  and  bad, 
pleasant  and  unpleasant,  intelligent  and  untouched  by 
the  spirit  of  life.  We  talk  much  about  the  democratic 
spirit  to-day  and  seem  to  think  that  we  are  democratic 
because  we  ride  in  the  street  car  with  the  man  in  his 
working  jeans,  because  we  stand  with  him  at  the  polls. 
j«  But  how  much  deeper  we  must  go  to  live  a  life  of  family 
M  devotion  with  all,  to  make  our  lives  part  of  the  common 
life! 

.  EDUCATION    FOR    DEMOCRACY    IN    RELIGIOUS    EDUCATION 

r^^  Evidently  education  for  democracy  must  begin  with 
...  ythe  very  roots  of  life,  with  the  springs  of  character  and  . 
will,  of  ideals  and  motives.  It  must  stimulate  us  to 
willingness  to  meet  in  practice  all  the  demands  of  its 
ideals,  to  pay  the  full  price  of  democratic  living,  that 
is,  not  alone  adjusting  ourselves  to  living  with  others  but 

1  This  concept  is  developed  and  applied  in  the  author's  "  Religious 
EflucatioQ  i^  the  Family,"  Umv^rsity  of  Chicago  Press,  1916. 


DEMOCRACY  AS  A  RELIGIOUS  IDEAL      S7 

controlling  ourselves  to  living  for  others  and  for  all 
others.  Education  for  democracy  involves  training  all 
lives  to  social  efficiency  and  social  devotion.  Surely  it  is 
not  a  mistake  to  call  all  competent  training,  directed  to 
these  ends,  religious  education!  It  is  immediately  of  im- 
portance to  ascertain  whether  current  education  is  directed 
to  these  ends. 

Any  adequate  program  of  education  for  the  future 
wUl  mvolve  a  re-interpretation  of  education.  The  les- 
son of  the  current  moral  assize  of  the  world  is  surely, 
first  of  all,  that  neither  nations  nor  individuals  can  live 
for  themselves  alone ;  self-interest  as  the  guiding  principle 
of  life  has  broken  down ;  our  plans  of  education  —  whether 
in  terms  of  individual  industrial  efficiency  or  in  terms  of 
individual  erudition  —  have  failed  and  so  equally  has  our 
individualistic  religion,  in  terms  either  of  dogmatism  or 
of  institutionalism.  Education  with  its  dawning  con- 
sciousness of  social  idealism  is  relating  itself  to  social  real- 
ity and  is  looking  forward  to  a  coming  social  order  domi- 
nated by  new  ideals.  Are  we  ^lot  now  facing  that  social 
order  in  which  all  may  live  in  unity  and  the  joy  of  com- 
mon service  ?  Have  we  not  practically  abandoned  the  mis- 
leading biological  analogy  which  interpreted  life  in  terms 
of  bitter  struggle,  of  progress  only  by  survival,  and  have 
we  not  come  to  see  the  greater  and  more  imperative  law 
of  the  organized  world,  that  life  is  found  in  self-giving? 
Competition  is  of  the  past:  our  individualistic  morality 
has  crumbled  under  present  social  strains.  We  are 
already  in  a  new  world  and  for  its  order,  its  demands, 
new  motives  are  imperatively  needed.  Our  world  has  come 
almost  to  suicide  through  loyalty  to  the  principle  of 
selfishness ;  the  new  world  waits  for  those  who  are  learning 
to  live  socially  and  therefore  not  simply  unselfishly  but 
with  the  spirit  of  the  larger  social  self. 

A  program  of  education  for  the  future  will  include 
the  following  characteristics:  (a)  The  stimulation  of  all 


38  EjpUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

social  development  in  the  direction  of  life's  highest  values. 
Education^ill  lie  guided  by  value-consciousness ;  what  is 
most  wortfe Virile  for  all  will  determine  the  goal  to  which 
aU  are  stimulated.  To  the  modern  mind  religion  is  our 
consciousness  of  the  meaning  and  worth  of  life.  If  this 
is  true  educAtion  will  be  under  the  illumination  of  the 
religious  concepts  and  ideals  of  a  .people,  (b)  The 
motivation  of  each  life  by  an  adequate  and  developing 
value-consMousness ;  this  will  mean  such  a  sense  of  the 
worth  of  tn^life.of  all  as  shall  lead  one  effectively  to  live 
for  that /worth.  The  religious  life  is  the  life  which  is 
governefrBy  such  a  consciousness.^  The  ultimate  purpose 
of  all  edu€a,tion  mufl  be  to  develop  persons  whose  gov- 
erning motives  are  religious,  who  are  wise  enough  to  live 
in  the  ligh^f  the  total  meaning  of* life,  (c)  The  deter- 
mination of  the  mechanism  of  lire  by  the  aim  of  life; 
recognitioH^hat  the  tools  of  living  are  of  subsidiary  value 
and  inmppiiiJce  to  the  product  of  life.  We  never  can 
have  a^al  educational  program  until  we  have  a  society 
which  rgalljj^  cbntrols  and  uses  the  jnechanism  of  living  as 
means  p^  Ariching  the  life  of  all.  ;,.This  implies  an  intel- 
ligent «)ci2fl^order,  one  in  which  purpose  deliberately 
formukii^'its  program.  In  the  eqd  it  would  mean  a 
religious  social  6rder.  (d)  The  right  of  society  to  self- 
realization  in  lives.  Whatever  h\nders  persons  from 
growth  as  persons  is  a  social  crime."^  Whatever  hinders 
unity  of  social  action  for  growth  ils  »a  crime  against  each 
one.  Society  must  be  organized  for  its  own  ends,  for 
the  sake  of  and  in  order  to  produce  the  possible  society. 

PERSONAL    RIGHTS    IN    DEMOCRACY 

Religious  education  plans  the  organization  of  society 
for  purposes  of  spiritual  growth ;  it  demands  the  scrutiny* 

1  Cf.  George;  A.  Coe  in  "  A  Social  Theory  of  Religious  Education," 
(Scribners,  1917). 

2  "  Whoever  causes  one  of  these  little  ones  to  stumble  .  .  ."  Jesus. 


DEMOCRACY  AS  A  RELIGIOUS  IDEAL      39 

and  the  determination  of  all  life's  processes  as  educational 
processes  under  religious  motives,  (a)  The  right  of  each 
person  to  social  realization.  Whatever  hinders  the  indi- 
vidual from  the  joyous,  stimulating  experience  of  unity 
and  self-expression  in  the  life  of  all  robs  him  of  life  itself. 
To  educate  men  in  selfishness  is  to  withhold  from  them 
the  larger  part  of  their  lives,  to  cramp  experience  into 
the  minute  segment  of  self  instead  of  expanding  it  in 
the  wide  circle  of  the  social  whole.  Social  realization 
really  means  full  participation  in  all  one's  world,  for  this 
society  stretches  in  every  direction.  It  includes  all  the 
splendid  souls  of  the  past  whose  ^f^fcwship  and  example 
is  our  heritage;  it  embraces  all  b^a^^s^f  the  light  in  all 
lands  everywhere ;  it  makes  a  part  of  our  own  circle  all 
who  now  live  for  truth  or  die  for  freedom.  The  develop- 
ment of  power  to  know  and  to  enter  into  this  rich  and 
stimulating  society  is  no  small  part  of  the  task  of  religious 
education.  To  live  here  is  to  discover  life's  true  values 
in  persons,  is  to  see  clearly  its  abiding  elements  that 
remain  unchanged  by  the  wrack  of  time,  is  to  grasp  the 
central  ideal  of  democracy  that  the  life  of  all,  like  the 
life  of  one,  consists  in  qualities  of  personality  and  that  the 
end  and  purpose  of  life  is  to  discover  and  develop  these 
qualities,  these  worths.  Religious  education  seeks  by  ac- 
tual experience  in  social  living,  by  the  stimulating  ideals 
of  large  and  enriching  lives,  by  the  push  of  the  historic 
ideals  of  the  race,  by  the  cultivation  of  prophetic  ideal- 
ism, to  guide  each  life  to  the  discovery,  the  reahzation  and 
the  enriching  of  all  life,  (b)  The  right  of  all,  especially 
of  the  young,  to  immediate,  practicable  instruction  in  the 
method  of  living  at  this  time.  Motives  and  ideals  are  es- 
sential but  they  must  be  formed  in  the  individual's  own 
experience ;  they  must  grow  out  of  the  realities  of  living. 
We  have  tried,  too  long,  to  deliver  motives  to  children; 
we  must  try  to  develop  them  by  directing  the  child's  actual 
experience  in  living  his  own  life  as  a  religious  life,      (c) 


40  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

The  right  to  training  in  the  methods  which  social  expe- 
rience has  indicated  as  the  best  in  reaHzing  our  common 
social  purpose.  It  will  gradually  develop  a  science  of  a 
religious  society. 

The  peculiar  present  task  of  religious  education  lies  in 
the  fact  that  for  us  at  this  time  the  only  practicable  life 
is  the  religious  life.  All  other  motives  have  proved  mis- 
leading; all  other  methods  evidently  are  suicidal.  Self- 
interest  makes  self-realization  impossible  because  it  inhib- 
its social  realization.  Social  efficiency  in  terms  of  a  com- 
petitive struggle  leads  only,  by  battlefields  —  military  or 
industrial  —  to  social  annihilation.  The  only  possible 
way  that  all  can  even  live  to-day  is  the  self-giving  way, 
abandoning  the  policy  of  developing  the  things  of  life 
solely  as  tools  of  gain,  and  definitely  adopting  a  program 
of  common  service  and  enriching  efficiency,  finding  the  self 
in  realizing  the  life  of  all. 

Religious  education  claims  its  primacy  in  the  interest 
of  men  to-day,  not  for  the  preservation  of  religious  tradi- 
tions, nor  principally  because  of  the  rights  of  the  individ- 
ual to  his  religious  heritage,  but  because  the  salvation  of 
society  lies  this  way  and  no  other,  no  other  sort  of  so- 
ciety is  possible  but  one  in  which  the  individual  lives  un- 
der religious  motives.  Such  a  society  is  possible  only  as 
lives  are  trained  for  this  life,  and  the  training  is  so  impor- 
tant that  it  ought  to  be  the  first  concern  of  society  to- 
day. 

All  who  take  seriously  the  problems  of  the  future  of 
democracy  will  turn  their  attention  first  to  children ;  they 
will  see  in  them  the  society  of  to-morrow.  And,  with  the 
children,  they  will  set  first  the  needs  of  the  life  of  the 
spirit.  They  will  not  make  training  in  religious  knowl- 
edge, ideals  and  habits  an  incidental  part  of  education; 
it  will  come  to  be  the  most  important  because  it  deter- 
mines the  ideals  and  wills  of  these  growing  persons;  it 
forms  their  characters,  and  thus  decides  everything  be- 


DEMOCRACY  AS  A  RELIGIOUS  IDEAL      41 

sides.  All  who  consider  the  future  of  democracy  will  con- 
sider with  great  care  the  agencies  and  the  methods  of  this 
religious  training.  They  will  seek  to  develop  the  agencies 
to  the  highest  possible  efficiency;  they  will  inquire  with 
great  care  as  to  the  kinds  of  materials  which  are  being 
used.  They  will  see  that  the  stories  told  to  children  may 
tremendously  affect  the  whole  character  of  the  future, 
that  the  religious  concepts  gained  in  childhood  may  be- 
come the  social  realities  of  to-morrow.  They  will  cease 
to  think  of  religious  education  as  the  occasional  interest 
of  a  few  faddists ;  they  will  see  it  as  our  most  important 
present  duty  with  relation  to  the  future  of  society. 


■  CHAPTER  IV 

EELIGION    IN    DEMOCRATIC    EDUCATION 

The  method  of  training  for  life  in  a  democracy  is  edu- 
cational; the  motive  which  fits  for  life  in  a  democracy  is 
religious. 

Education  for  democracy  is  social  training  under  a 
spiritual  interpretation  of  life  and  for  the  whole  of  social 
living.  This  preparation  for  living  on  the  plane  of  life's 
highest  values  we  choose  to  call  religious  education.  But 
the  phrase  "  religious  education  "  misleads  many ;  at  least, 
it  still  requires  much  explanation,  for,  often,  it  means 
nothing  beyond  instruction  in  theology  and  creeds  or 
training  in  loyalty  to  ecclesiastical  institutions.  It  is 
necessary,  first,  to  distinguish  between  instruction  about 
religion  and  religious  education ;  and  then  it  may  be  help- 
ful to  see  the  inter-relation  and  mutual  dependence  of 
education  and  religion  in  democracy. 

There  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  a  man  will  be  a  better 
democrat  because  he  has  read  or  even  memorized  a  dic- 
tionary of  religion.  {There  is  no  evidence  that,  of  itself, 
knowledge  about  religion  either  makes  a  religious  p€rson 
or  a  better  citizen.  The  cynical  assertion  that  religion 
has  nothing  to  do  with  politics  is  entirely  just  and  accu- 
rate if  by  religion  is  meant  either  pure  pietism  or  mere 
information  about  religion.  But  the  assertion  is  false 
when  it  means  that  life  in  a  democracy  has  nothing  to 
do  with  religion,  or  that  religion  has  nothing  to  do  with 
democracy.  For  religion  is  an  ideal  and  spirit  of  life 
which  determines  the  mode  of  life,  and  democracy  is  an 
ideal  and  spirit  of  social  life  which  determines  the  mode 
of  social  life  for  a  people. 

42 


RELIGION  IN  DEMOCRATIC  EDUCATION      43 

Education  for  democracy/  is  religious  because  democ- 
racy is  a  religious  concept.  Religion  and  democracy  can- 
not be  seM,rated.  Education  for  one  must  include  the 
other.  I  I^^  imjiaasihle  ta  he  an.  irxeligiaus  democrat.  1  \ 
This  is^ident  if  we  accept  the  definitions  of  democracy" 
already  stated  and  if,  beside  them,  we  place  the  modern 
definition  of  religion,  as  one's  interpretation  of  the  mean- 
ing and  value  of  life.  For  it  is  precisely  upon  this  valua- 
tion of  life  that  democracy  is  based.  Christianity  and 
democracy  accept  personality  as  the  supreme  aim  in  exist- 
ence, as  that  for  which  society  is  organized.  Christianity 
is  the  gospel  of  democracy,  and  democracy  is  the  demon- 
stration of  Christianity.  Education  in  Christianity  will 
consist  in  instruction  in  the  ideals  and  training  in  the  art 
of  living  in  a  society  of  common  goodwill;  it  will  be  edu- 
cation in  the  way  or  mode  of  the  society  of  the  follow- 
ers of  Jesus,  in  the  life  of  the  democracy  of  the  spirit. 
Education  for  democracy  is  education  for  social  life  based 
on  a  concept  of  supreme  values  in  personality,  of  society  y^ 
as  existing  for  spiritual  ends.  Therefore  such  education 
is,  of  necessity,  religious  in  character,  in  its  ideals,  in  its 
aims,  for  it  has  to  do  with  and  it  is  determined  by  definite 
historic  religious  facts,  by  religious  experiences  and  by 
concepts  of  spiritual  values.  Such  education,  then,  is 
religious  education,  that  is,  education  as  determined  by 
the  fact  of  dealing  with  religious  persons  and  being  di- 
r£j?ted  toward  a  religious  end. 

Ijt  is  not  easy  to  overcome  fixed  verbal  connotations. 
Religion  has  meant  either  creed,  credulity  or  ercTesi^fiti- 
cism  to  so  many  and  democracy  TiaF'so'long"  meant  no 
more  than  a  political  form  that  it  is  difficult  to  realize^ 
their  unity  and  fundamental  identity.  Rut  it  is  not  diffi- 
cult to  take  the  first  step  in  realizing  that  our  present- 
day  life  makes  demands  on  us  that  can  be  met  only  in  the 
spirit  of  religion,  that  it  calls  for  sacrifices  under  devo- 
tion to  spiritual  ideals.     It  is  not  difficult  to  see  that  a 


44  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

society  which  fully  practiced  the  social  ideals  of  Jesus  ^ 
would  be  a  true  democracy.  It  is  not  difficult  to  see  that 
if  the  young  are  to  be  prepared  for  a  society  o£  that  char- 
acter their  education  must  be  religious  in  character  and 
include  religion  in  its  content.  Religious  education  be- 
comes a  fundamental  need  in  democracy.  Is  our  think- 
ing of  religion  ready  for  this  use.'^  Can  we  conceive  of 
education  in  which  religion  really  functions? 

Education  for  democracy  is  religioius  because  the  very 
>  concept  of  education  is  religious.  That  is  still  a  hard 
saying  to  many.  There  still  remain,  amongst  those  who 
are  supposed  to  be  educated,  those  who  think  of  religion 
as  no  more  than  a  matter  of  superstition.  ^  And  there 
are  those  who  regard  education  as  no  more  than  an  arro- 
gant assumption  of  knowledge  destructive  of  that  cred- 
ulity which  they  call  faith  and  which  they  imagine  to  be 
religion. 

Clear  thinking  on  the  relations  of  religion  and  educa- 
tion is  fundamentally  important.  We  have  not  yet 
passed  from  the  controversy  which  presupposed  a  con- 
flict between  the  two.  Education  is  still  suspected  of 
proffering  knowledge  as  a  substitute  for  religion.^  But 
the  large  tasks  before  us  in  training  the  society  of  the 
future  call  for  the  light  of  all  our  intelligence;  they  call 
for  the  alliance  of  all  the  forces  of  the  higher  life. 

1  One  thinks  of  his  life  and  teaching  as  a  demonstration  and 
elucidation  of  his  answer  to  Pftort's  query  and  Socrates'  search, 
"What  is  truth?    What  is  the  supreme  worth  in  life?" 

2  At  a  recent  convention  a  speaker  vehemently  denounced  religious 
education,  citing  the  moral  defalcation  of  Germany  in  evidence; 
he  confounded  German  technical  training  with  education  and  the 
German  systems  of  "  religionsunnterricht "  with  religious  education ; 
the  first  is  an  excellent  example  of  a  system  of  instruction  devoid 
of  that  spirit  and  that  spiritual  aim  which  are  essential  to  education; 
the  second  is  an  example  illustrating  the  difference  between  knowl- 
edge about  religion  and   religious  education. 


RELIGION  IN  DEMOCRATIC  EDUCATION      45 


AN    IMAGINARY    CONFLICT 

Ignorance  is  the  mother  of  much  eloquence.  Freedom 
from  knowledge  often  gives  liberty  of  utterance.  Simple 
information  has  ended  many  controversies  and  wisdom  has 
stopped  yet  more.  The  ancient  debate  on  the  supposed 
conflict  between  education  and  religion  ladifi  vigor  to- 
day because  deeper  understanding  reveals  h^w^ony  and 
unity  where  once  only  conflict  seemed  to  exist.pyPut  just 
as  the  weeds  of  foolish  controversy  flourish  wheirever  there 
are  areas  of  ignorance  so  there  are  not  lackntaVtp-day 
those  who  will  ask,  with  much  wise  wagging  or^h^ds, 
whether  the  "  heart  "  is  not  endangered  by  "  thev  heatL" 
whether  knowledge  is  not  the  foe  of  grace\  ana\  eve 
whether  one  can  go  to  college  ancLj&till  be  a  TeK^^o«s  j)er-^ 

son-   .  V^       '"^^:rV^ 

It  is  alleged  that  the  processes  of  modern  ed^toation  de- 
feat the  purposes  of  religion.  I  One  hears  pathetic  stories 
of  young  people  who  have  gone  up  to  college,  their  hearts 
warm  with  religious  zeal,  only  to  have  the  fires  forever 
quenched.  I  They  have  graduated,  !we  are  told,  spiritual 
wrecks.  They  return  devoid  of  interest  in  the  affairs  of 
the  home  church.  Some  strange  paralysis,  called  educa- 
tion, has  come  over  their  spiritual  lives.  They  are  re- 
garded with  pity  mingled  with  awe.  The  disastrous 
process  of  religious  decay  seems  very  simple  to  the  quiet 
souls  at  home;  these  young  people  have  changed  for  the 
worse;  education  has  wrought  their  spiritual  undoing.  f 
Usually  those  who  denounce  education  as  inimical  to/ 
religion  know  neither  the  one  nor  the  other.  By  educa-l 
tion  they  mean  some  strange  fantasy  of  popular  crea-l 
tion,  a  soulless  creature  constructed  of  cold  facts,  lifting 
its  arrogant  head  in  proud  independence  of  God  and 
goodness.  But  by  religion  they  mean  something  ofter 
[infinitely  worse,  a  system  of  theories  about  the  universe. 
I  human  destiny  and  supernatural  beings  —  rigid,  mechan- 


46  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

ical  and  unrelated  to  life.  Religion,  in  the  mouths  of 
such  debaters,  means  theology,  and,  of  course,  their  own 
theology,  the  height  of  which  is  dependent  on  its  narrow- 
ness. 

That  there  is  conflict  between  two  such  concepts  no  one 
can  doubt.  Even  if  education  were  such  a  cold,  blood- 
less and  largely  useless  compound  of  knowledge,  it  would 
still  be  in  conflict  with  superstition.  It  would  oppose 
theories  with  facts  and  it  would  shed  light  on  the  dark 
places  in  the  human  mind.  And  as  knowledge  grows 
from  more  to  more  it  would  naturally  come  to  pass  that 
truth,  even  though  it  be  bloodless,  would  oppose  untruth. 
Growing  knowledge  would  mean,  as  Tensyson  says,  grow- 
ing reverence,  and  that  would  mean  opposition  toward 
irreverence  and  especially  opposition  toward  that  blatant 
irreverence  that  assumes  to  comprehend  and  set  the  bounds 
for  the  infinite  within  its  little  brain,  that  dares  to  declare 
a  monopoly,  or  at  least  a  patent,  on  God. 

While  practically  all  the  opposition  to  education  which 
is  based  on  alleged  religious  grounds,  arises  with  and  is 
sustained  by  ignorant  people,  there  remains  much  doubt 
and  hesitation  on  the  part  of  many  intelligent  persons 
as  to  the  relations  of  the  two.  Their  difficulties  arise  at 
the  point  of  partial  knowledge.  They  have  identified  edu- 
cation with  scientific  research  and  they  have  been  accus- 
tomed by  tradition  to  think  of  science  as  in  opposition  to 
religion.  Seldom  has  any  fixed  idea  had  greater  currency 
than  that  of  "  the  conflict  of  religion  and  science  "  has 
had  in  the  churches.  It  has  been  conceived,  not  as  an 
historic  process  but  as  a  condition  inherent  in  the  nature 
of  things.  Moreover  scientific  research,  fostered  by  edu- 
cational agencies,  has  trimmed  away  so  many  concepts 
that  were  once  supposed  to  be  essential  parts  of  religious 
belief  that  there  is  a  strong  suspicion  whether  one  can  be 
a  scientist  and  still  be  a  religious  person.  Often  that  sus- 
picion is  sufficient  reason  for  condemning  all  higher  edu- 


RELIGION  IN  DEMOCRATIC  EDUCATION      47 

cation  for  it  is  generally  held  that  the  colleges  are  re- 
sponsible for  the  spread  of  the  scientific  spirit.  Of  course 
all  thoughtful  persons  realize  that  science  has  not  undone 
religion ;  on  the  contrary  much  has  been  gained,  and  noth- 
ing essential  has  been  lost,  for  we  are  simply  substituting 
facts  for  theories.  A  singular  situation  is  revealed  when 
we  consider  the  popular  attitude  toward  science  in  de- 
partments of  interest  other  than  the  religious.  No  more 
of  faith  is  involved  in  biology  than  in  medicine ;  yet  some- 
how —  perhaps  because  our  immediate  interests  are  so 
real  —  we  have  unreservedly  accepted  science  as  to  the 
healing  of  our  own  bodies  while  we  hesitate  to  accept  it 
as  to  the  history  of  those  bodies. 

It  may  seem  to  many  that  the  conflict  between  religion 
and  science  is  over.  That  is  true  in  certain  communities 
and  amongst  a  certain  class  of  people.  But  it  is  far  from 
being  true  everywhere.  Let  a  preacher  so  much  as  men- 
tion Evolution  or  even  the  name  of  Charles  Darwin  in  a 
Baptist  pulpit  —  or  almost  any  other  pulpit  —  in  the 
rural  South  or  Southwest,  and  he  will  find  himself  swept 
away  in  a  storm  of  orthodox  wrath.^  The  ranter  and  the 
demagogue  make  their  living  by  persistent  appeals  to 
prejudice  of  this  kind.  Denunciations  of  science  are  their 
stock  in  trade  and  ridicule  of  education  their  reliance  for 
applause.  Many  good  people  in  their  blindness  imagine 
they  are  defending  God  by  opposing  science. 

But  even  though  the  victory  were  won,  even  though 
there  were  complete  reconciliation  between  science,  as  the 
word  of  education,  and  religion  as  the  teaching  of  the 
churches,  much  still  remains  to  be  done.  It  is  not  enough 
to  think  of  these  as  two  forces  which  can  exist  side  by 
side  in  the  same  world,  the  important  step  is  to  realize 

1  Only  recently  a  school  principal  in  a  Southern  city  was  dismissed 
for  "  favoring  Darwinism,"  and  another  in  another  city  for  teaching 
geology  in  a  manner  that  conflicted  with  a  literal  interpretation  of 
Genesis. 


v\ 


48  '   EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

the  unity  and  mutual  dependence  of  religion  and  educa- 
tion. 

Now,  in  truth,  one  might  as  well  talk  of  conflict  be- 
tween the  climate  and  the  weather  as  to  discuss  warfare 
between  religion  and  education.  When  both  are  known 
in  their  simple,  essential  meanings  they  are  seen  not  as 
two  distinct  ideas  and  activities  but  as  one  and  the  same. 

Religion  is  an  ideal  as  to  the  meaning  of  life,  humanity 
and  the  universe  which  is  so  inspiring  that  it  stimulates 
men  to  seek  the  realization  of  the  ideal.  Education  is 
this  religious  ideal  endeavoring  to  find  reality  in  persons 
and  in  the  social  whole.  Religion  presents  a  concept  of 
life  and  destiny ;  education  offers  a  program  for  its  real- 
ization. Thus  religion  is  the  force  behind  all  education; 
education  is  religion  in  one  of  its  great  activities.  Once 
accept  in  its  fullness  the  religious  view  of  the  nature  and 
destiny  of  our  race;  once  see  the  religious  vision  of  a 
united,  loving  common  society  rejoicing  in  fullness  of 
powers  and  in  the  riches  of  inner  wealth,  then  the  educa- 
tional program  of  man's  development  is  the  natural  and 
inevitable  attempt  to  realize  a  religious  society. 

WHAT    DO    WE    MEAN    BY    "  RELIGIOUS  "  ? 

Of  course  one  is  here  thinking  of  religion  in  its  broad 
and  inclusive  meanings,  as  the  great,  vital  principle  that 
in  some  measure  marks  all  faiths  and  comes  to  a  rich 
flowering  in  Christianity.  Religion  historically  has  been 
a  slowly  developing  concept  of  the  universe;  it  has  been 
a  gradual  unfolding  of  the  meaning  of  human  life  and  its 
relations  to  all  other  life  and  to  all  time.  Man  has  been 
answering  his  own  question.  What  does  life  mean  and 
what  is  it  worth?  Both  question  and  answer  steadily  have 
deepened  their  significances.  Out  of  the  answers  have 
come  the  creeds  and  forms  of  religion.  A  creed  has  a 
religious  character  but  it  is  not  religion;  it  is  a  formal 
statement  of  a  point  of  view.     It  is  commonly  a  succinct 


RELIGION  IN  DEMOCRATIC  EDUCATION      49 

presentation  of  thoughts  about  rehgion,  and,  certainly  it 
is  almost  always  a  record  of  a  compromise  between  diverse 
opinions.  But  opinions  about  religion  are  not  religion, 
often  they  are  not  even  religious. 

The  educational  concept  of  religion.  That  spirit  and 
ideal  which  we  call  religion  views  man  as  set  in  the  eternal 
processes  of  the  universe,  with  an  eternity  behind  in  which 
he  has  grown,  and  an  eternity  before  in  which  he  yet  may 
grow.  It  believes  in  life  without  limitations ;  it  sets  no 
boundaries  before,  because  it  can  trace  none  in  the  past. 
It  builds  its  hopes  for  the  future  on  the  progress  of  the 
past  and  the  promise  of  an  ideal  within.  It  sees  man  al- 
ready conscious  of  a  life  that  in  its  outreach  and  aspira- 
tion knows  no  limit.  Man  is  religious  because  he  has 
eternity  in  his  heart.  The  law  of  growth  is  in  his  na- 
ture. 

Where  life  means  growth,  where  its  worth  is  just  in  the 
chance  to  grow,  religion  finds  its  hope  coming  to  realiza- 
tion in  the  processes  of  education ;  faith  becomes  loyalty 
to  the  laws  of  personal  growth  in  earnest  endeavor  to 
secure  to  all  men  everywhere  the  chance  to  grow  to  the 
fullness  of  the  divine  ideal.  Then  religion  can  only  be 
expressed  in  the  educational  terms  of  all-inclusive  develop- 
ment, and  education  can  be  expressed  only  in  the  religious 
terms  of  fulfilling  the  divine  plan  of  growth  by  coopera- 
tion with  the  eternal  powers  of  life. 

/     The  religious  person  is  that  one  who  takes  life  in  terms 
/of  growth,  whose  hope  for  all  life  is  that  all  may  grow 
/  into  closer  harmony  as  all  approach  the  ideal  life,  and 
f  whose  plan  for  society  is  its  development  into  the  loving 
family  of  the  all-Father.     He  finds  he  is  constantly  seek- 
ing thus  the  educational  ideal;  religion  gives  him  an  edu- 
cational concept  of  life's  processes  and  its  plan. 
,^     The  religious  motive  is  essential  in  any  competent  plan 
^  of  education.     If  life  means  limitless  possibilities  of  spir- 
itual   social   relations    and   development,   how    are   these 


so  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

realized?  Life  answers:  The  way  is  long  but  the  path 
is  plain ;  where  life  is  there  is  growth.  Perfection  is  not 
imposed;  it  is  slowly  attained.  Progress  is  the  outward 
..  expression  of  the  inner  force  of  life.  It  is  the  vital  pow- 
ers reaching  out  in  new  directions,  finding  new  relations, 
establishing  new  abilities.  Growth  is  part  of  a  universal 
process  which  we  call  life.  This  life  of  personality  is  part 
of  the  great  all-inclusive  life  that  moves  forward,  develop- 
ing and  growing.  The  law  that  is  written  on  the  blade  of 
grass  and  on  the  body  of  man  is  written  not  less  on  his 
higher  nature.  Life  comes  from  life  and  grows  by  the 
processes  of  life.  When  this  universal  and  divine  law 
of  life  as  growth  is  applied  to  persons  we  call  the  process 
education.  After  all  education  is  simply  our  attempt  to 
work  with  God  in  growing  men. 

Educational  endeavor  all  through  the  past  has  grown 
out  of  a  religious  philosophy  of  life.  Aspiration  is  pos- 
sible only  where  life  has  higher  possibilities.  Opportunity 
for  realization  is  afforded  to  all  only  when  all  life  has 
spiritual  values.  The  view  of  man  as  a  part  of  a  uni- 
verse of  life,  a  being  made  "  to  grow  and  not  to  stop," 
has  fostered  every  effort  to  furnish  him  the  agencies  and 
stimuli  of  growth.  The  early  church  promoted  educa- 
tion not  simply  as  means  of  learning  but  as  a  method  of 
life.  Schools  were  founded  not  because  she  needed  a 
trained  leadership  alone  but  because,  wherever  she  was 
the  guardian  and  exponent  of  true  religion,  she  must  both 
preach  and  teach ;  she  must  both  deliver  and  demonstrate 
the  gospel  that  men  may  have  life.  Her  one  great  mes- 
sage was  that  of  Life;  wherever  the  light  burned  clear 
she  illumined  the  path  of  life  to  men ;  wherever  she  was  a 
voice  and  not  an  echo  she*  called  them  to  larger  life.  The 
church,  like  her  Master,  exists  that  men  "  might  have 
life  and  might  have  it  more  abundantly."  She  is  bound, 
not  alone  to  proclaim  deliverance  from  death,  but  to  show 


RELIGION  IN  DEMOCRATIC  EDUCATION      51 

men  the  way  into  life  through  the  truth.  The  funda- 
mental articles  of  her  creed  are  that  God  is  life,  and  that 
men  may  grow  to  His  likeness.  Therefore  she  not  only 
believes  in  education,  she  must  be  an  educator.  Nor  is 
this  all,  every  true  agency  of  education  —  in  the  high 
sense  of  light  that  leads  into  life  —  shares  in  the  divine 
task  of  the  church.  The  religious  quality  of  any  insti- 
tution will  be  the  measure  of  enriching  it  gives  to  the 
lives  of  men.  Such  a  test  will  put  the  college  and  uni- 
versity into  a  new  category.  Out  of  a  religious  passion 
they  were  bom;  only  a  religious  aim  can  adequately  ex- 
press their  present  social  function. 

The  university,  born  of  man's  free  search  for  life's 
meaning,  became  the  torch-bearer  of  the  church ;  the 
schools  followed.  History  is  a  record  of  religion  —  this 
passion  for  complete  life  —  stirring  in  the  hearts  of  men, 
expressing  itself  crudely,  perhaps  at  times  cruelly,  often 
blindly,  but  still  struggling  after  more  light  and  life  and, 
therefore,  at  last  crowning  all  institutions  with  the  schools 
for  the  people.  To-day  the  school  stands  out  as  the 
leading  social  institution  of  our  common  life.  We  often 
lose  sight  of  the  fact  but,  nevertheless,  the  school  is  re- 
ligion applied  to  life;  the  school  is  religion  in  the  flower 
and  the  fruit.  Every  public  school  is  an  expression  of 
society's  essentially  religious  faith  that  a  child  may  grow 
and  that  the  first  debt  which  society  owes  to  him  is  to 
provide  him  full  opportunity  for  growth  as  a  member  of 
society.  Every  school,  too,  is  an  expression  of  the  re- 
ligious motive  which  delights  to  sacrifice,  to  give  life  to 
others,  for  every  such  school  simply  means  the  united 
sacrifice  of  each  community  in  order  that  all  children  may 
have  the  chance  to  grow.  A  public  school  is  a  social 
syndication  of  idealism  and  sacrifice  invested  in  the  lives 
of  to-day  for  the  social  life  of  to-morrow.  It  is  the  ex- 
pression of  our  democratic  creed. 


k 

63  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

m 
EELIGION^  .THE    MOTHER    OF    EDUCATION 

There  is  no  way  of/ accounting  for  the  phenomenon  of 
.  modem  education  apart  from  the  ideals  and  spirit  of 
religion.  Why  sho.ulS"  we  pay  taxes  for  public  educa- 
tion except  under  the  recognition  of  a  higher  law  of  obli- 
gation to  give  life  to  all?  Why  should  we  withhold  our 
children  from  bread-winning  cooperation  in  the  family 
except  under  the  irhpei^tivQ  call  to  give  them  the  chance 
to  grow?  Why  should  we  expect  and  encourage  large 
gifts  to  colleges  from  persons  of  means,  except  that  they 
have  the  vision  of  the  contribution  which  the  college  must 
make  to  life?  They  see  the  gift  not  as  a  monument  in 
buildings  but  as  an  act*  of  obedience  to  the  heavenly  vi- 
sion of  youth  growing  into  richer  living.  Arid  this  reli- 
gious ideal  is  precisely  ^;^e  spirit  of  democracy ;  it  is  de- 
votion to  the  enrichniPnt  ^of  life.  Educatioli  cannot  be 
democratic  without  this  religious  faith  in  lif^,  nor  can 
it  be  religious  without  the  democratic  purpose  of  devotion 
to  the  life  of  all. 

The  inadequacy,  for  democracy,  of  much  education  lies 
in  its  irreligious  character.  This  lies  not  in  any  espe- 
cial lack  of  religion  in  the  content  but  in  the  absence  of 
a  high  aim  based  on  the  vision  of  human  social  possibili- 
ties and  values.  In  so  far  as  we  depart  from  the  essen- 
tial inspiration  of  all  educational  effort,  that  is,  the  spirit 
of  organized  endeavor  to  give  to  all  persons  the  fullness  of 
their  lives  in  a  spiritual  universe,  we  depart  from  true 
education  and  indulge  in  mere  instruction  and  trick-train- 
ing. Lacking  this  vision  our  colleges  become  m^re  mills 
for  making  money-making  machines,  business  houses  to 
turn  out  manufacturers,  chemists,  engineers,  wrought  out 
of  the  material  that  God  meant  should  become  manhood. 

The  mockery  and  disappointment  of  modern  education 
is  precisely  that  it  often  has  lost  its  soul  in  exploiting  the 
world;  it  is  more  interested  in  mechanics  than  in  men 


RELIGION  IN  DEMOCRATIC  EDUCATION      53 

because  it  lacks  this  higher  and  wider  interpretation  of 
religion.  We  call  it  training  for  social  efficiency  and  we 
limit  it  to  the  acquisition  of  proficiency  in  a  few  of  the 
tricks  and  habits  of  making  a  living.  In  our  insistent 
emphasis  on  the  practical  we  have  almost  persuaded  our- 
selves that  the  business  of  school  and  college  is  all  de- 
termined by  the  needs  of  trades  and  professions.  We 
would  reorganize  the  whole  curriculum  at  the  demand  of 
the  factory. 

At  present  we  scarce  have  any  system  of  education,  but 
rather  a  number  of  sporadic  attempts  to  teach  some  of 
the  many  things  that  will  develop  efficiency  in  making  a 
larger  or  bigger  living.  Herbert  Spencer,  re-acting  from 
the  traditionalism  and  the  proud  impracticability  of  the 
English  universities,  has  with  clever  words,  intended  only 
as  an  argument  for  the  practical  preparation  of  work- 
ers, succeeded  in  making  us  ashamed  of  the  cultural  ele- 
ments so  that  we  apologize  for  everything  that  does  not 
have  a  wage  or  a  salary  potency.  His  popular  treatise 
on  "  Education  "  was  a  much-needed  call  to  develop  life 
through  actually  useful  training;  but  we  have  taken  his 
means  as  our  end. 

Our  tendency  has  been  to  sacrifice  the  man  to  the  ends 
of  manufacturing.  The  scholar's  pride  in  the  intellect 
has  given  place  to  the  technician's  pride  in  the  training 
of  hands.  This  we  call  vocational  training,  as  though 
the  only  vocation,  the  final  and  all  inclusive  one,  was  that 
which  cries  aloud  in  the  market  places  and  factories. 
Such  training  loses  sight  of  the  values  of  personality;  it 
develops  only  workers,  efficient  machines ;  it  defeats  its  own 
purpose  and  throws  the  engineer  under  the  boilers.  It 
consumes  the  very  powers  without  which  the  worker  can 
never  be  efficient.  That  which  industry  needs  is  precisely 
that  which  the  individual  needs,  more  man,  larger  and  more 
developed  personality.  Work  must  have  not  alone  nimble 
fingers  nor  alone  a  brain  nimble  with  figures  but  a  life 


64     EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

that  has  power,  has  found  itself,  can  grow  and  Is  motived 
with  the  passion  for  growth. 

Hard,  practical  and  biting  events  recently  have 
smashed  some  of  our  favorite  educational  theories.  For 
over  a  generation  we  pointed  to  the  educational  system  of 
Germany,  the  most  perfectly  organized  mechanism  for 
making  efficient  workers,  artizans,  citizens  and  parts  of 
the  machinery  of  the  state.  Now  the  system  has  come  to 
its  supreme  test.  It  has  demonstrated  both  its  efficiency 
and  its  insufficiency.  It  has  built  up  a  wonderful  ma- 
chine —  without  conscience  or  soul.  We  have  the  wheels, 
but  there  is  lacking  the  spirit  of  life,  the  spirit  of  human 
feeling,  of  an  affection  and  aspiration  that  goes  beyond 
the  machine  and  a  soul  that  counts  not  gain  or  dominion 
first  of  all.  It  has  demonstrated  its  diabolical  possibili- 
ties. It  converted  a  nation  into  a  machine  and  when  the 
devil  was  ready  to  use  it  then  it  obeyed  his  will. 

The  spectacle  of  a  national  failure  of  education  at  the 
very  springs  of  life  only  throws  into  high  relief  that  which 
is  true  in  our  own  country.  We  have  applied  the  fruitage 
of  scientific  training  wholly  to  the  tools  of  making  a  liv- 
ing, we  have  bent  our  energies  wholly  to  making  the  two 
blades  of  grass  supplant  the  one  and  the  two  factories 
reap  four  times  the  profit  of  one.  We  have  cared  naught 
for  making  each  man  in  himself  worth  twice  what  he  was 
before ;  we  have  cared  naught  for  the  inner  sources  of  life's 
guidance  and  refreshing.  We  have  been  so  intensely  prac- 
tical that  we  have  developed  the  menacing  machine  of  edu- 
fcated  workers  who  have  all  the  power  of  the  engine  and 
none  of  the  wisdom  of  an  engineer,  who  can  run  fac- 
tories and  great  systems  of  business  but  lack  either  wis- 
dom or  power  to  run  themselves.  They  know  where  they 
can  make  business  go  but  no  one  knows  where  they  will 
drive  themselves,  nor  whither  they  may  drift. 

The  present  danger  is  that  of  a  short-measure  educa- 
tion, excellent  so  far  as  it  goes  but  failing  to  go   far 


RELIGION  IN  DEMOCRATIC  EDUCATION      55 

enough,  to  include  enough  to  save  itself.  It  is  good  food 
—  but  without  saving  salt.  It  is  well-organized  and 
highly  efficient,  but  wholly  insufficient,  because  it  deals 
only  with  the  surface  of  life  and  fails  to  touch  the  springs 
of  action,  to  develop  ideals  and  motives.  It  is  therefore 
efficient  to  make  skilled  organizers  of  capital  but  insuffi- 
cient to  save  them  from  social  piracy,  to  make  chemists 
but  unable  to  save  them  from  poisoning  the  purchaser  of 
food,  able  to  teach  all  to  read  but  powerless  to  develop 
the  choice  of  the  good  or  to  check  the  tides  of  moral 
poison. 

THE    SAVING    SPIRIT 

What  is  needed?  Shall  we  abandon  all  education  and 
call  it  a  failure,  owning  that  it  does  but  whet  the  edge 
of  knavery,  that  it  does  but  sharpen  the  tooth  of  raven- 
ing beasts  of  prey  and  turn  our  whole  system  into  social 
shambles  where  each  may  rend  and  devour .?  Does  educa- 
tion tend  only  to  make  nobler  beasts,  more  efficient  fac- 
tors whose  energies  may  be  turned  to  ill  and  catastrophe? 
Do  we  not  see  other  signs  ?  Have  we  not  made  much  prog- 
ress toward  social  adjustment  and  development  and  have 
not  the  steps  of  progress  been  under  the  leadership  com- 
monly of  educated  men  and  women.?  Turn  to  the  settle- 
ments, turn  to  the  groups  of  men  and  women  who  are  pas- 
sionately devoting  their  lives  to  meeting  great  social  and 
moral  issues,  who  are  waging  the  real  fight  for  right  and 
giving  to  their  fellows  larger  life.  Who  are  they  but  col- 
lege graduates  .f^  They  are  a  fraternity  of  sacrificial,  ef- 
ficient service.  They  are  examples  of  education  as  a  proc- 
ess of  the  development  of  powers  and  their  application  to 
personal  and  social  aims.  These  people  have  been  trained 
and  developed,  not  that  they  might  gain  from  life  but 
that  they  might  give  life.  Here  we  have  the  very  essence 
of  the  religious  interpretation  of  education,  a  process  of 
the   directed   development    of    life   into   fullness    for   the 


56  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

sake    of   the    full    and   efficient   life    of    common    service. 

This  spirit  and  this  alone  will  save  our  system  of  edu- 
cation and  save  our  educated  men  and  women.  In  this 
spirit  is  the  natural  expression  of  religion  in  education 
and  it  is  the  effective  mode  by  which  religion  becomes  a 
part  of  education.  It  comes  not  alone  by  information  on 
the  history  and  literature  of  religion ;  these  have  their 
place  only  in  the  degree  and  are  valuable  to  the  extent 
that  they  succeed  in  inspiring  this  ideal,  in  that  they 
make  us  feel  the  force  of  past  persons  and  days  when  this 
spirit  prevailed  with  men.  The  religious  character  of 
education  depends  on  what  it  makes  life  mean  to  us;  it  is 
tested  in  the  resultant  spirit  and  purpose  in  any  life. 
Even  though  men  carry  on  their  lips  catalogues  of 
prophets  and  martyrs  they  easily  go  out  to  be  despoilers 
and  brigands  of  society,  blind  devouring  beasts  who 
should  be  shepherds  and  saviors.  But  where  life  means 
service,  where  one  is  governed  by  the  democratic  motive, 
the  great  of  all  days  become  real  through  the  fellowship 
of  service  and  religion  becomes,  not  a  thin-spun  theory, 
but  a  real  experience  in  living. 

No  other  spirit,  than  that  of  devotion  to  the  common 
good,  can  hold  young  people  content  through  the  toil 
and  waiting  of  student  days.  The  immediate  world  offers 
tempting  rewards;  the  future  seems  uncertain:  but  it  is 
evidently  worth  while  to  wait  if  thereby  growth  is  en- 
sured, if  waiting  and  working  means  greater  efficiency  and 
thus  a  larger  contribution  to  the  common  life. 

This  spirit  gives  meaning  to  all  studies  and  disciplines. 
The  spiritual  possibilities  of  life  interpret  the  universe. 
Science  becomes  an  open  book  of  revelation ;  the  impres- 
sive story  of  evolution  takes  on  new  significance  with  its 
promise  jFor  man  and  its  invitation  to  aid  in  his  develop- 
ment. Given  a  purpose  in  personality  to  the  universe  it 
takes  over  the  forms  of  beauty ;  without  that  purpose  the 
more  we  know  of  the  universe  the  more  it  mocks  us  with 


RELIGION  IN  DEMOCRATIC  EDUCATION      57 

its  meaningless  mechanisms.  To  see  a  life  purpose  in  the 
growth  of  personality  is  to  give  the  color  of  that  purpose 
to  the  whole  world. 

What,  then,  is  the  place  of  religion  in  the  course  of 
studies?  It  reveals  purpose  in  life.  It  opens  doors  into 
the  yesterdays  and  reveals  men  and  women  who  lived  for 
the  purposes  of  spiritual  service,  for  the  divine  good  of 
humanity.  Their  shining  vision  draws  us  on.  We  feel 
race  movements  under  religious  inspiration ;  we  find  our- 
selves as  part  of  the  life  of  peoples  moving  toward  God. 
We  see,  not  dynasties  and  statecraft,  but  leaders  and  mul- 
titudes who  counted  not  their  lives  dear  if  only  mankind 
might  find  freedom  and  fullness  of  life.  They  poured  out 
their  aspirations,  and  to  us  they  are  not  merely  forms  for 
literary  criticism,  they  are  the  very  breath  of  the  life 
of  other  days.  Our  race  heritage  and  our  race  pressure, 
moving  toward  God,  becomes  our  possession  and  our 
power. 

Thus  religion  becomes  a  spirit  of  life,  a  way  of  think- 
ing about  life  and  a  way  of  living.  Religion  is  not  only 
that  which  is  studied  in  the  biblical  and  theological 
courses ;  it  is  that  which  rises  to  guide  life  in  any  course 
when  the  real  meanings  and  uses  of  living  are  seen.  The 
special  courses  in  religion  are  designed  only  to  furnish 
through  specific  and  easily  distinguished  instances  the  clew 
to  the  interpretation  of  all  fields  of  knowledge.  They 
are  not  the  curriculum  compartments  into  which  religion 
is  segregated;  they  are  the  sources  and  springs  from 
which  a  spirit  and  interpretation  of  all  knowledge  and  all 
training  flows  into  every  department. 

This  spirit  of  religion  which  makes  life  a  means  of  serv- 
ing the  life  of  all  is  that  which  saves  the  modern  college. 
It  makes  it  an  institution  of  ideals  in  a  material  age.     It 
makes  it  an  institution  of  religion,  a  minister  to  the  souls  ^ 
of  men,  a  means  of  salvation  in  a  selfish  world.     The  cure  j 
for  the  lust  of  office,  spoliation  of  the  weak,  robbery  of 


68  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

the  poor,  oppression  of  childhood,  for  the  mad  lust  of 
hate  and  the  black  night  of  lust  lies  neither  in  the  illumi- 
nation of  knowledge  nor  in  the  control  of  legislation  and 
regulation,  but  in  that  which  determines  our  ideals,  in- 
spires our  wills  and  guides  our  conduct.  It  lies  in  wills 
that  will  the  right,  hearts  that  love  the  good  and  true, 
emotions  that  stir  toward  right  paths.  The  new  day 
waits  for  new  man,  and  men  are  made  new  as  their  spirits 
are  renewed  within  by  the  vision  of  loving  devotion  to  the 
common  good. 

Religion  is,  then,  such  an  interpretation  of  life  as  alone 
can  make  education  sufficiently  broad,  high  and  vital  for 
the  world  of  to-day.  It  discloses  a  society  worth  being 
educated,  a  range  of  possibilities  realizable  only  through 
ordered  groT^i:h,  motives  that  stimulate  toward  growth,  a 
vision  of  possibilities  of  usefulness  that  call  for  the  devel- 
/opment  of  powers.  Moreover,  religion  furnishes  the 
method  of  personal  development.  It  teaches  the  supreme 
lesson,  that  this  pathway  of  service  is  also  the  way  of 
self-realization.  The  life  that  freely  gives  itself  fully 
finds  itself.  Service  is  the  secret  of  strength  and  the 
source  of  power.  This  way  of  devotion  to  ideals  is  the 
curriculum  of  personality.  Here  are  the  two  methods  of 
the  religious  life:  the  vision  before  leading  on,  the  activ- 
ity at  hand  developing  the  power  to  follow  the  vision. 
This  is  the  process  of  education,  disclosing  the  truth  and 
organizing  experience  in  its  realization.  To  be  effective 
education  must  be  a  religious  experience;  to  be  real  in 
society  religion  must  reach  us  through  these  educational 
means,  through  revelation  of  truth  and  through  experi- 
ence. And  so,  moved  forward  by  the  vision  glorious, 
heartened  by  the  glory  of  all  that  life  means,  gloriously 
pouring  out  life's  flood  in  devotion  to  all,  in  common  work 
with  God,  men  are  led  forward  in  a  continuous  educational 
experience  into  that  common,  inclusive  society,  that  fel- 
lowship of  God  and  all  men,  which  is  the  true  democracy. 


CHAPTER  V 

EDUCATION  AND  THE  PROBLEMS  OF  DEMOCRACY 

The  outstanding  problems  which  must  be  met  in  the 
reaHzation  of  the  democratic  hope  lie  in  the  realm  of 
thought  and  feeling.  We  cannot  have  a  democratic  state 
until  we  have  a  people  of  the  democratic  spirit. 

Democracy  will  reign  within  before  it  is  realized  with- 
out. It  will  be  the  prevailing  ideal  of  a  people  before  it 
really  prevails  as  a  mode  of  social  organization.  To  what 
degree  can  we  count  on  the  prevalence  of  the  ideals  of 
democracy.?  This  is  very  different  from  asking  whether 
we,  in  America,  are  committed  to  democracy.  By  our 
political  history,  our  national  traditions  and  our  public 
avowals  we  are  a  democracy.  But  the  conversion  of  this 
outer  form  of  government  into  a  vital,  controlling  spirit, 
directing  the  lives  of  individuals  and  the  relations  of  all 
persons,  is  a  tremendous  task.  It  is  predicated  on  the 
possibilitiy  of  the  conversion  of  the  minds  and  wills  of 
democracy.  It  is  possible  only  when  we  have  become  ha- 
bituated to  thinking  in  social  terms.  It  means  that  the 
popular  ideals  of  this  age  are  democratic.  To  what  ex- 
tent is  this  the  case? 

Our  first  problem  is  to  determine  the  degree  to  which 
democracy  has  become  a  prevailing  ideal.  Is  this  age 
already  characterized  by  the  democratic  ideal?  The 
character  of  an  age  depends  on  its  current  ideals.  The 
really  important  question  whenever  we  would  make  a  j  udg- 
ment  of  any  period  is,  what  were  its  dominating  ideals.? 
We  cannot  know  its  history  until  we  know  what  is  in  its 
heart.  But  it  is  not  easy  to  discover  and  describe  the 
heart  of  an  age.     Ideals  are  always  in  flux  and  develop- 

59 


60  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

ment.  While  we  are  defining  them  others  are  realizing 
1:hem  and  advancing  new  ones.  Every  ideal  has  within  it 
the  power  of  destroying  itself  by  fulfillment  and  enlarge- 
ment. Again,  ideals  tend  to  disguise  themselves.  The 
more  compelling  they  are  the  less  likely  is  it  that  we  will 
confess  them.  We  get  only  reflections  of  current  ideals 
in  literature  and  song;  they  are  eff^ective  in  active  life 
before  they  take  these  forms.  We  must  search  for  them 
in  the  activities  of  people,  and  not  alone  in  the  normal 
activities,  but  in  those  which  seem  to  have  special  em- 
phasis or  to  be  developments  peculiar  to  their  times. 
Looking  over  our  own  times  we  can  hardly  hesitate  to 
recognize  two  outstanding  social  activities  which  have  had 
unusual  emphasis.  They  are  social  consciousness  and 
education. 

Social  consciousness  is  an  evidence  of  the  democratic 
ideal.  Social  consciousness  is  a  term  less  concrete  but 
much  more  accurate  than  "  social  amelioration  "  in  de- 
scribing the  activities  of  our  times.  Social  service,  social 
betterment,  social  rights,  civic  improvement  and  all  the 
movements  for  improving  conditions  of  living,  for  secur- 
ing to  men  and  women  fair  wages,  decent  housing,  leisure 
and  recreation  are  all  expressions  of  the  social  conscious- 
ness. They  indicate  the  fact  that  we  have  come  to  realize 
not  only  that  we  live  in  a  society  and  that  we  are  a  so- 
ciety, but  that  the  life  of  this  society  is  the  most  impor- 
tant of  all  human  concerns.  An  awakening  social  con- 
sciousness is  simply  a  dawning  democratic  ideal.  Its  ac- 
tivities are  based  on  a  sense  of  the  values  of  people.  It 
/Seeks  to  organize  all  society  on  the  basis  of  those  values. 
/  Just  as  democracy  is  government  for  the  people  by  the 
powers  of  the  people  so  this  social  activity  is  the  attempt 
of  the  people  to  govern  current  life  for  the  sake  of  people,  j 

It  would  be  difficult  to  determine  whether  the  demo- 
cratic ideal  is  an  expression  of  the  social  spirit  or  social 
activity  a  manifestation  of  the  spirit  of  democracy.     They 


THE  PROBLEMS  OF  DEMOCRACY  61 

are  inseparable.  Democracy  is  bound  to  extend  itself  be- 
yond the  forms  of  political  organization.  In  our  social 
activity  it  is  giving  evidence  of  its  vitality  and  power. 
Increasingly  human  values  determine  social  forms,  indus- 
trial conditions,  the  aesthetic  and  the  religious  life  and  thus 
give  evidence  of  the  extent  to  which  the  basic  concepts  of 
democracy  develop  in  and  rule  the  minds  of  men. 

Current  educational  activity  is  a  revelation  of  current 
ideals.  Amongst  all  the  interests  of  the  present  age  none 
more  clearly  reveals  its  ideals  than  that  range  of  en- 
deavors which  we  group  under  education.  While  we  are 
too  near  to  form  a  judgment  it  is  not  unlikely  that  the 
period  which  hinges  on  the  opening  of  the  twentieth  cen- 
tury will  be  known  as  the  period  of  the  educational  em- 
phasis. Two  things  are  certainly  true ;  first,  that  educa- 
tional activities  constitute  the  largest  single  social  invest- 
ment of  energy,  time  and  money  of  this  period;  and,  sec- 
ond, that  this  field  has  offered  the  largest  opportunitiy  to 
the  free  expression  of  the  idealism  of  individuals.  Here 
is  the  one  thing  which  costs  us  more  than  any  other  and 
it  is  the  one  in  which  we  find  the  largest  and  most  lasting 
pleasure,  in  which  we  take  the  highest  pride  and  upon 
which  we  are  building  our  highest  hopes.  It  would  there- 
fore appear  that  to  realize  just  what  education  means  to 
this  age  would  be  to  discover  the  dominant  aim  of  the 
age. 

A  brief  discussion  must  suflfice  where  an  adequate  one 
is  quite  impossible.  HEducation  is  the  greatest  common 
faith  of  a  free  people.  We  have  many  sects  but  only  one 
system  of  schools,  in  nearly  all  communities  many  churches 
but  only  one  school.  We  have  various  political  parties 
but  all  support  our  common  educational  system  and  their 
partisans  send  their  children  to  the  same  school&J  Here, 
because  of  agreement  in  common  conviction,  we  syndicate 
our  efforts  and  our  means  to  support  the  agencies  of 
education.     No  tax  is  more  cheerfully  paid,  it  makes  no 


62  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

difference  whether  or  not  the  citizen  sends  children  to  re- 
Iceive  the  benefits  of  the  tax.  The  rich  man  forsakes  his 
hoarding  to  endow  the  college  and  the  poor  man  forgets 
his  poverty  to  send  his  children  there. 

EDUCATION    EXPRESSES    DEMOCRACY 

Not  only  does  the  age  manifest  devotion  by  united  sup- 
port of  education,  it  is  now  developing  an  intelligent  pop- 
ular interest  in  the  efficiency  of  the  schools.  We  are 
beginning  to  sell  books  on  education  to  people  who  are 
not  professional  educators.  Lectures  and  public  discus- 
sions receive  popular  support.  The  schools  receive  a 
growing  measure  of  attention  in  the  public  press.  And, 
far  more  important  than  these  tendencies,  we  have  wit- 
nessed a  remarkable  development  of  intelligent  interest  in 
and  cooperation  with  the  schools  on  the  part  of  the  people. 
The  most  definite  evidence  of  this  lies  in  the  organization 
and  service  of  the  different  types  of  clubs  and  societies 
organized  as  ^'  Parent-Teacher  Associations,"  "  School 
Clubs,"  etc.  To-day,  in  nearly  every  American  com- 
munity, there  is  to  be  found  a  society  or  club  of  some 
sort  designed  to  bring  the  families,  as  an  organized  group, 
into  cooperation  with  the  school.  Parents  gather  to  be 
instructed  on  educational  ideals  and  methods ;  they 
organize  to  aid  the  school  in  its  work;  they  guard  its 
interests  and  foster  the  improvement  of  its  environment 
and  of  the  conditions  under  which  its  pupils  live. 

But  why  recite  these  endeavors  in  a  discussion  of  the 
prevailing  ideals  of  democracy  ?  Because  these  endeavors 
reveal  the  extent  to  which  those  ideals  are  already  con- 
trolling action ;  they  show  democracy  directing  society  in 
public  service.  When  in  a  community  we  find  the  families 
organized  under  a  consciousness  of  unity  of  purpose  with 
the  schools,  when  men  and  women  devote  large  areas  of 
their  time  in  united  social  efforts  to  make  the  school 
the  efficient  center  of  community  development,  there  we 


THE  PROBLEMS  OF  DEMOCRACY     63 

see  a  segment  of  democracy  organized  to  secure  the  demo- 
cratic end  —  the  development  of  persons  —  by  the  demo- 
cratic method  —  the  free  activities  of  persons.  When 
the  activities  of  these  groups  are  examined  we  discover 
new  indications  of  the  growth  of  the  spirit  of  democracy. 
We  find  that  they  are  not  organized  so  much  to  improve 
the  efficiencies  of  the  school  in  instruction ;  rather  they  are 
directing  themselves  under  a  concept  of  the  entire  life  of 
the  community  as  interpreted  in  educational  terms.  They 
see  the  school  as  the  center,  but  they  concern  themselves 
with  playgrounds,  parks,  clean  streets,  the  suppression 
of  social  plague  spots,  the  regulation  and  development 
of  amusements  and  recreation,  the  provision  of  objects 
and  centers  of  art.  All  these  activities  grow  out  of  the 
now  rapidly  developing  conviction  that  the  entire  life 
of  a  community  is  constantly  operating,  educationally,  to 
determine  the  development  and  the  characters  of  men 
and  women  and  especially  of  the  young.  Here  then  we 
have  the  democratic  concept  of  social  organization  as 
determined  by  the  needs  of  persons  actually  controlling 
organized  social  activities. 

Another  important  evidence  of  this  tendency  lies  in 
the  recent  organization  of  movements  for  commwnity 
betterment  arid  coordination.  In  a  word,  we  have  come 
to  an  educational  consciousness  of  community  living. 
Democracy  has  led  us  to  see  beyond  our  streets  and  stores, 
our  factories  and  marts,  and  has  compelled  us  to  think 
of  these,  not  alone  as  factors  in  commercial  success  or  as 
features  for  civic  pride,  but,  more  seriously,  as  active 
factors  in  determining  lives,  in  promoting  or  retarding 
the  great  purpose  of  democracy,  the  growth  of  lives. 

We  have  come,  also,  to  a  clearer  and  deeper  realization 
of  the  importance  of  the  educational  processes  in  the 
agencies  of  religion.  We  have  coined  and  given  wide 
currency  to  a  new  phrase,  "  religious  education.'*  We 
have  realized  the  function  of  the  church  as  that  of  the 


64  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

development  of  society,  through  the  training  of  persons, 
into  the  divine  ideal  of  a  great  common  family.  A  new 
conscience  for  character  comes  into  the  churches  under 
the  ideal  of  democracy.  It  is  an  old  concept  that  seemed 
to  be  almost  lost  for  a  long  time.  Now  it  is  being 
restored  and  the  church  is  expected  to  organize  its  life 
and  direct  its  powers  in  order  that  men  and  women  may 
become  really  godlike  and  society  may  reflect  the  divine 
goodness  and  love.  Therefore  the  church  gives  the  child 
a  new  place.  It  provides  courses  of  training ;  it  prepares 
teachers  and  engages  trained  educators;  it  erects  special 
educational  buildings  and  has  already  developed  a  con- 
siderable literature  on  religious  education.  The  spiritual 
mind  turns  with  new  hope  to  these  enterprises,  looking 
on  the  child  and,  believing  that  he  can  grow  normally 
into  fullness  of  character,  it  looks  forward  to  a  world 
where  all  men  know  and  love  the  truth,  where  they  live 
for  one  another  and  find  joy  and  peace.  This  is  the 
spirit  of  democracy  illuminated  by  the  ideals  of  religion 
and  counting  on  realization  through  the  educational 
method. 

We  cannot  assert  that  the  ideals  of  democracy  wholly 
control  life ;  far  from  it ;  but  we  can  surely  see  the  signs 
of  developing  control,  promises  on  which  we  may  base 
our  certain  hopes.  And  the  hope  is  the  more  certain 
in  that  all  this  educational  activity  constantly  includes, 
both  in  the  content  of  the  curriculum  and  still  more  in 
the  nature  of  the  activities,  training  in  the  ideals  and  the 
practice  of  democracy.  And  so  to  this  extent,  at  least, 
we  can  see  an  answer  to  the  question  whether  democracy 
has  become  a  current  popular  ideal. 

Our  second  problem  is  that  of  developi/ng  the  respon- 
sibilities of  freedom  over  against  the  temptations  of 
a'wtocracy.  There  are  types  who  would  always  rather  be 
governed  than  exercise  thought  and  effort  in  governing; 


THE  PROBLEMS  OF  DEMOCRACY  65 

there  are  times  for  all  when  we  sigh  for  some  one  to  deter- 
mine conduct  for  us.  Then  there  are  evident  advantages 
in  dictatorship.  One  mind  moves  much  more  rapidly 
than  a  multitude.  One  mind  ruling  all  can  secure 
uniformity  and  unity  of  action.  From  the  beginning  of 
the  great  war  Germany  was  the  outstanding  example  of 
the  absolute  control  of  a  large  group  of  peoples  through 
one  autocratic  dictatorship.  The  most  serious  difficulty 
of  the  Allies,  next  to  their  lack  of  preparation,  was  their 
democratic  methods  of  procedure;  there  were  as  many 
minds  as  there  were  nations  and,  then,  within  each  nation 
there  was  a  multitude  of  counselors  which  did  not  make 
either  for  unity  of  action  or  for  expedition.  To  many  ob- 
servers it  seemed  that  the  dictatorship  had  proved  its  su- 
perior efficiency.  Undoubtedly  it  has  superiority  for  cer- 
tain purposes.  If  aggression,  domination  and  subjugation^ 
is  the  mission  of  a  nation  it  had  better  have  a  dictator. 
But  there  seem  to  be  advantages  in  dictatorship  when 
the  national  energies  are  directed  toward  less  reprehensible 
ends.  The  United  States  utilized  a  series  of  dictators 
in  carrying  on  its  war  program;  a  food  dictator,  whose 
function  has  been  largely  advisory;  a  press  dictator  who 
attempted  to  control  what  we  shall  know,  and,  apparently, 
what  we  shall  think;  a  ship-building  dictator,  and  so  on. 
The  President  steadily  sought  larger  powers,  amounting 
to  dictatorship  in  many  respects.  It  is  true  that  such 
steps  have  been  taken  under  the  guise  of  the  democratic 
method,  the  people  permitting  them  and  retaining  the 
power  to  prevent.  Bu^"  the  simple  fact  is  that  they  are 
taken  as  leading  to  efficiency  in  conducting  the  war,  and 
the  grave  question  is,  shall  we  always  abandon  democracy 
and  turn  to  the  leadership  of  dictators  in  every  hour  of 
national  crisis?  Do  we  take  these  steps  because  they 
are  necessary  or  simply  because  they  are  the  easy  solutions 
of  a  problem 


■'1 


66  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 


WHEN    DEMOCRACY    FAILS 

Democracy  breaks  down  as  a  practical  political  method, 
or  has  to  be  modified  at  times  because  the  political  purpose 
is  not  always  democratic  and  the  people  have  not  been 
trained  for  democracy.  They  have  not  so  learned  its 
arts  as  to  be  able  to  practice  them  under  strain.  To 
many  democracy  is  only  a  political  expedient  to  be 
dropped  when  another  expedient  will  work  better.  Most 
people  think  only  in  terms  of  the  present  moment;  they 
will  do  whatever  the  passing  occasion  seems  to  demand. 
They  have  not  learned  to  take  long  views  of  affairs.  They 
are  unconscious  of  any  need  for  a  guiding  philosophy  and 
it  has  never  occurred  to  them  that  "  history  is  philosophy 
teaching  by  example."  They  know  the  history  of  institu- 
tions only  in  the  most  vague  and  disconnected  manner. 
The  movement  in  Roman  history  from  republican  institu- 
tions to  absolutism,  through  the  Caesars  to  the  Kaiser 
concept,  from  freedom  to  fall,  m^eans  nothing  to  them. 
Our  politicians  are  not  statesmen ;  they  scoff  at  the  term 
as  a  newspaper  man  scoffs  when  termed  a  journalist. 
They  scorn  thinking  and  pride  themselves  on  being  prac- 
tical minded.  Our  political  discussions  are  confined  to 
men  and  immediate  measures.  It  is  little  wonder  we 
readily  yield  to  the  temptations  of  any  undemocratic 
devices  that  promise  to  facilitate  government. 
I  Trained  intelligence  must  be  our  principal  hope.  They 
see  the  dangers  and  they  have  the  larger  confidence  in 
democracy  who  understand  the  long  conflict  of  humanity 
with  absolutism,  who  see  religion  gradually  emerging  from 
the  notion  of  a  dictator  deity  to  the  leadership  of  a 
splendid  Brother  in  the  great  Human  family,  from  control 
by  spiritual  authority  to  institutional  democracy,  who 
see  the  many  and  long  experiments  of  history  with  the 
gradual  decline  of  monarchy  and  the  passing  of  kings, 
who  see  peoples  growing  in  the  essential  elements  of  power 


THE  PROBLEMS  OF  DEMOCRACY    67 

and  permanence  in  the  degree  that  they  are  free  and 
intelligent2^Faith-in  democracy  is  founded  on  knowledge 
of  humanity.  The  temptations  of  autocratic  expedients 
are  seen  in  the  clear  light- of  humanity's  long  experience. 
Such  knowledge  is  the  right  and  heritage  of  all  in  a 
democracy.  Nor  can  we  stop  with  knowledge ;  there 
must  be  training  to  meet  the  duties  and  strains  of  democ- 
racy, training  determined  in  the  light  of  our  probable 
problems.  This  will  include  actual  experience  in  social 
life  which  deliberately  chooses  the  difficult  path  of  democ- 
racy rather  than  the  short  cuts  of  autocracy,  such 
experience  as  can  be  guided  in  the  family  and  the  school. 
Democracy  is  a  dangerous  experiment  where  it  is  only  an 
experiment  unguided  by  the  wisdom  gathered  from  the 
race  experience  and  administered  by  persons  untrained  in 
its  practice. 

Third,  education  must  face  the  problem  of  nationalism 
versus  individual  freedom.  We  tend  to  set  these  two  out 
objectively  as  opposites,  thinking  of  the  nation  as  a  sep- 
arate entity  and  of  individual  freedom  as  a  matter  of 
separate  absolutism  in  the  personal  realm.  But  in  a 
democracy  the  nation  is  possible  only  because  free  men 
will  to  act  in  national  capacities.  The  nation  has  no 
separate  existence;  it  is  not  a  something  which  confers 
freedom  on  the  people ;  it  is  their  creation.  And  yet  we 
must  think  in  terms  of  our  larger  common  life,  as  a  nation. 
Democracy  does  involve  loyalty  to  the  larger  group. 
Nor  need  that  conflict  with  loyalty  to  freedom.  The 
diff^erence  lies  here:  nationalism  thinks  of  the  nation  as  a 
power  over  the  people ;  democracy  thinks  of  the  nation  as 
the  power  of  the  people.  /(^Nationalism  calls  on  us  to  serve 
the  state,  defend  the  state,  maintain  its  honor  and  enlarge 
its  prestige;  democracy  calls  on  us  to  serve  by  means  of 
the  state,  to  use  our  collective  capacities  which  are  the 
state  as  a  means  of  enriching  and  honoring  all  life^  The 
problem  is  that  of  developing  loyalties,  a  matter  almost 


68  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

wholly  neglected  so  far  as  the  democratic  motives  and 
ideals  are  concerned.  Our  emotional  stimuli  are  nearly 
all  those  which  work  just  as  well  under  a  monarchy.  We 
fail  to  develop  feeling  regarding  the  great  aims  of  our 
national  life.  And  yet  the  material  is  abundant ;  parts  of 
the  Bible  are  saturated  with  the  idealism  of  human  respon- 
sibility in  national  life;  splendid  passages  occur  in  our 
American  poets  and  essayists,  as  in  Lowell,  Emerson  and 

/Lincoln,  not  to  mention  others,  as  Mazzini  and  Burke. 

'  There  is  no  dearth  of  opportunity  nor  of  illustration  in 
current  life  if  only  we  have  the  vision  to  see  our  task, 
to  conserve  the  loyalties  in  the  lesser  groups,  to  direct 
them  in  service,  to  discover  the  joys  of  sacrificial  devotion 
to  social  ends  and  to  lead  these  habits  of  loyalty  and 
activity  into  the  larger  life. 


CHAPTER  VI 

PROBLEMS    OF    WORLD    LIVING 

The  catalogue  of  world  problems  we  need  not  attempt 
to  exhaust  but  there  are  at  least  two  which  face  democ- 
^^racy  and  which  have  forced  us  to  realize  their  pertinency. 
/     First,  is  the  very  practical  problem  of  securing  human 
I      solidarity    and   harmony   umder    the  ideals    of   personal 
I      freedom.     How  can  the  highest  common  interests  be  con- 
served without  destroying  personal  freedom? 

This  question  comes  to  the  front  with  increasing 
impressiveness  as  human  life  develops  closer  relationships. 
We  struggle  for  the  rights  and  delights  of  our  individual 
selves  in  days  when  events  are  welding  us  into  world  unity. 
Civilization  seems  to  mean  the  breakdown  of  individual 
living.  Commerce  weaves  us  into  a  world-fabric  of  mutual 
dependencies.  Separateness  of  living  disappears  not  only 
locally  but  nationally  also.  Shall  we  come  into  rigid 
uniformity  under  this  new  unity?  The  question  lies  at 
the  heart  of  all  endeavor  for  social  welfare,  for  we  seek 
something  more  than  the  organization  of  all  persons  into 
regiments  living  in  hygienic  apartments,  well-fed  and 
clothed,  we  seek  the  well-being  that  comes  through  the 
exercise  of  free  wills.  It  lies  at  the  basis  of  our  discussion 
of  social  problems  and  our  agitation  for  social  justice. 
As  Eucken  says,  "  Justice  is  nothing  other  than  the 
harmony  of  life  incorporated  into  one's  own  volition." 

The  problem  of  human  freedom  is  as  old  as  the  race. 
It  is  a  problem  only  because  we  are  set  in  society, 
environed  by  innumerable  other  wills,  equally  free.  It 
is  the  root  of  the  ethical  problem,  for  an  ethical  life  is 
possible    only    when    one   is    free    to    will    and    act,    and 

69 


70  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

demonstrable  only  when  there  are  other  lives,  other  wills 
in  relation  to  which  one  can  act.  It  is  Plato's  great 
theme.  He  treats  it  so  prominently  because  the  Greeks 
were  the  first  people  to  apply  the  conception  of  civic 
freedom.  True,  freedom  meant  for  them  the  opportunity 
of  all  to  live  for  and  in  the  state,  to  be  parts  of  the 
state.  The  civic  limitations  of  their  freedom  raised  the 
questions  which  Socrates  faced,  the  right  of  each  man 
to  follow  virtue,  the  good.  In  the  assertion  of  personal 
freedom  to  seek  the  good  and  to  serve  the  best  Socrates 
and  Jesus  both  passed  through  death.  Socrates  said, 
"  Knowledge  is  virtue  ";  Jesus,  "  Ye  shadl  know  the  truth 
and  the  truth  shall  make  you  free."  Men  have  come 
to  know  some  part  of  the  truth  and  to  claim  their  heritage 
of  freedom.  Did  they  know  all  truth  in  the  Socratic 
sense  of  knowing  and  in  the  Christ  sense  of  truth  there 
would  be  no  problem  of  freedom  under  social  relations. 
To  Socrates  knowledge  included  moral  insight;  to  Jesus 
truth  included  the  conception  of  life  in  terms  of  love,  as 
part  of  a  universe  conceived  in  infinite  love. 

We  to-day  are  likely  to  see  only  the  darker  features 
and  to  get  an  impression  of  a  problem  rather  than  a 
process.  We  see  an  irresponsible  electorate  blindly  voting 
away  its  own  soul;  selling  its  birthright  and  ours,  too; 
asserting  its  freedom  to  choose  its  own  good,  usually 
goods.  We  see  cunning  wedded  to  cupidity  claiming  free- 
dom to  exploit  us  all,  and  loudly  asserting  the  liberty 
of  the  weaker  members  of  society  to  make  bad  and  vicious 
bargains  with  the  strong,  the  right  of  the  socially  disinte- 
grated to  stay  disintegrated  and  become  the  spoil  of  the 
integrated  mighty  ones.  Individualism  runs  amuck  under 
the  fair  guise  of  freedom.  What  has  the  educational  ideal 
to  do  with  these  conditions? 

We  face  in  a  new  world-alignment  the  problem  of  human 
freedom  in  its  largest  significances:  since  in  this  modern 
integration  of  human  interests  social  solidarity  is  abso- 


PROBLEMS  OF  WORLD  LIVING  71 

lutely  necessary,  can  it  be  attained  under  freedom?  Is 
the  German  method  of  welding  a  people  by  the  external 
pressure  of  authority  the  only  way?  Or  is  it  possible 
that  the  fusing  of  purpose  and  effort  will  come  from 
within,  rising  in  the  free  wills  of  men?  If  free  men  cannot 
will  unity,  if  in  freedom  we  cannot  find  a  common  social 
goodwill,  democracy  is  doomed. 
/^  The  educational  ideal  has  within  it  the  solution  of 
/  the  problem  of  freedom  under  social  relations.  First,  it 
•*'  recognizes  the  necessity  of  preparing  men  for  the  strain 
of  freedom.  It  seeks  to  provide  for  every  man  the  oppor- 
tunity and  the  disciplines  of  self-discovery.  Its  modern 
emphasis  is  on  social  experience.  It  begins  for  the  child 
with  his  organized  association  with  other  lives.  It  trains 
in  social  living  through  a  society  called  a  school.  It 
develops  knowledge  through  common  experiences  gained  in 
this  society.  It  constantly  subjects  every  life  to  the 
training  of  adjustment  to  other  lives.  The  subjects  that 
are  taught  are  the  means  of  finding  and  perfecting  con- 
tacts and  adjustments  with  other  lives  and  groups  of  lives. 
It  develops  habits  of  social  relations.  It  trains  the  power 
of  willing  what  one  will  do  in  the  light  of  what  others  are 
doing  or  what  should  be  done  with  or  for  others.  It 
reveals  the  self  through  social  experience. 

We  cannot  know  what  freedom  means  until  we  know 
this  agent  that  would  be  free,  until  we  learn  to  discriminate 
between  the  freedom  of  the  will  and  the  wild  abandon 
of  passion  and  lust,  until  we  discover  this  self  that  ought 
to  sit  supreme  like  the  charioteer  over  his  steeds.  The 
educational  process  brings  men  to  know  themselves  as 
persons.  It  also  trains  men  for  freedom  by  the  develop- 
ment of  self-control.  This  free  I  is  not  free  until  it  does 
as  I  may  will,  not  as  driven  by  the  hot  blast  of  hellish 
hate  or  swept  along  by  greed  or  wild  with  fanaticism. 
The  age  needs  men  who  can  rule  their  spirits.  It  needs 
disciplined  leaders,  fit  for  freedom.     For  these  it  must 


72  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

turn  to  the  schools  of  leadership ;  it  must  look  to  those 
who  have  subjected  themselves  to  the  discipline  of  life 
under  ideal  aims. 
,^Next,  the  educational  ideal  meets  the  problem  of  free- 
/dom  by  its  evaluation  of  a  motive  and  an  aim  so  high 
f  that,  while  all  strive  toward  it,  all  find  scope  for  individual 
freedom  in  the  process.  There  cannot  be  social  unity  so 
long  as  men  set  before  them,  as  the  summwm  honum, 
material  good  of  any  kind  or  any  object  which  cannot 
be  shared  by  all  alike.  We  are  not  all  equally  free  to 
be  millionaires,  nor  equally  free  to  be  foreign  ministers 
or  national  presidents.  But  the  educational  ideal  holds 
that  the  least  man  is  as  free  as  the  greatest,  the  poorest 
as  the  richest,  to  set  before  him  as  the  chief  aim  in  life 
the  fullness  and  freedom  of  personality  and  of  social 
realization.  It  calls  on  men  to  take  their  money  making, 
their  toil,  their  legislating  and  presiding  as  means  toward 
life,  the  ultimate  good.  It  is  the  voice  that  speaks  to 
the  barn-builder,  "  Thou  fool,  this  night  thyself  is  required 
of  thee ! "  When  men  live  for  personality  they  find  har- 
mony in  freedom.  With  this  aim  we  discover  that  those 
very  sacrifices  due  to  social  living  which  seemed  to  limit 
our  freedom  under  selfish  and  material  aims,  make  for 
the  greater  freedom  and  fullness  of  personality,  that  the 
constant  struggle  between  the  individual  desire  and  the 
social  welfare  is  the  crucible  in  which  the  pure  metal  of 
manhood  is  refined.  This  is  the  meaning  of  the  word, 
"  He  that  will  lose  his  life  shall  save  it."  The  higher 
goal  places  right  values  on  the  lower  aim.  The  educated 
man  has  learned  to  live  for  values  that  can  only  be  found 
in  the  way  of  service,  of  investment  of  self  in  the  good  of 
all ;  he  has  seen  a  goal  that  can  only  be  reached  as  he  shall 
help  others  toward  it.  In  such  a  program  of  human 
action  harmony,  unity,  and  solidarity  is  consonant  with 
true  freedom. 

But  this  is  only  part  of  a  more  inclusive  solution  of 


PROBLEMS  OF  WORLD  LIVING  73 

the  problem.  By  its  insistence  on  ultimate  values  edu- 
cation has  enabled  us  to  see  that  life's  present  values 
are  to  be  realized  only  m  the  social  whole.  Reiterating 
the  question,  what  is  life  worth?  it  finds  satisfying  worth 
only  in  the  life  of  all.  It  has  so  stimulated  lives  to  seek 
ideal  ends  that  most  of  us  have  discovered  the  very  simple 
fact  that  they  cannot  be  found  individually  and  can  be 
ours  only  as  they  are  possible  to  all.  If  the  idealist  could 
be  an  egoist  he  could  not  be  an  individualist  practically ; 
he  is  forced  to  depend  on  all  others  for  any  realization 
of  ideal  ends.  But  this  is  not  all.  The  fundamental 
thesis  of  education  that  man  was  made  to  grow  implies 
a  goal  for  growth.     This  it  now  sees  in  an  ideal  society. 

The  other  problem  is  essentially  one  peculiar  to  bur 
American  life,  are  we  sufficient  for  the  new  world  oppor- 
tunity? 

We  are  at  the  dawn  of  a  new  day;  its  coming  was 
indicated  by  a  darkness  that  seemed  to  obscure  the  moral 
vision  and  a  sleep  that  lay  like  a  paralysis  over  all 
patriotism.  We  sneered  at  the  ideals  of  yesterday;  the 
cynic's  laugh  drowned  the  songs  of  love  of  country  or 
the  sentiment  of  devotion  to  her  good.  We  seemed  to 
be  content  with  the  glory  of  gain,  with  the  proud  achieve- 
ments of  kleptocratic  princes.  Then  came  the  deluge, 
the  world  catastrophe  of  the  war.  With  a  tardiness  that 
will  be  our  shame  for  many  days  we  at  last  realized  its 
moral  significance.     We  entered  the  world. 

We  have  found  our  new  worlds  to  conquer.  They  are 
not  those  of  the  old  world  nor  of  territorial  extent  any- 
where. They  are  in  the  realm  of  human  values.  We  say 
that  we  entered  the  war  to  make  the  world  safe  for 
democracy.  This  is  a  new  idea,  fighting  for  a  principle, 
fighting  not  for  our  form  of  government  but  for  the  rights 
of  people  to  govern  themselves.  But  are  we  ourselves 
ready  for  democracy.?  Are  we  willing  to  pay  its  high 
price.?     It  means  so  much  more  than  that  every  one  shall 


74      EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

be  permitted  to  participate  in  government;  it  means 
that  every  one  shall  take  up  the  burden  of  sovereignty 
which  is  not  less  than  high-minded  devotion  to  the  common 
good.  The  worth  of  a  democracy  is  determined  by  the 
worth  of  the  lives  of  its  people.  We  are  not  ready  to 
demonstrate  democracy  to  the  world  until  we  set  aside 
all  our  personal  aims  and  desires  in  order  to  give  to  the 
whole  world  democracy  the  full  service  of  a  worthy  life. 

ARE    WE    PREPARED? 

The  new  tasks  are  much  more  difficult  than  the  old 
ones.  We  had  completed  one  task,  subduing  the  material 
difficulties,  subjugating  the  material  forces,  and  developing 
the  physical  resources  of  a  great  new  domain.  These 
days  of  schooling  past,  are  we  ready  for  world  living.'^ 
The  grave  question  now  is  whether  we  have  the  spirit 
amd  power  to  take  up  and  carry  through  the  greater^ 
higher  amd  more  elusive  task  that  awaits^  to  conquer 
ourselves^  to  apply  ourselves  to  the  impressive  problem 
of  a  world  society.  We  are  called  from  developing  a 
continent  to  develop  the  resources  of  humanity.  This 
is  the  call  of  the  new  patriotism. 

The  moral  glory  of  American  character  in  the  past 
century  was  due  not  one  whit  more  to  puritan  ideals  than 
to  the  stimulus  of  a  tremendous  enterprise;  pioneering 
made  men  as  truly  as  puritanism.  We  were  saved  by 
our  shortcomings  and  our  struggles.  From  Valley  Forge 
to  the  Panama  Canal  is  one  eloquent  chapter  of  splendid 
moral  achievement  under  the  curriculum  of  a  nation's 
birth  throes.  The  vision  of  a  new  land  of  freedom  and 
a  new  humanity  nerved  our  fathers.  The  vision  has  been 
largely  fulfilled  and  we  are  the  most  impoverished  of 
all  peoples  if  to-day  we  are  ready  to  sigh  that  there  is 
no  more  chance  for  heroism.  The  difficulty  is  not  to  find 
chances  but  to  find  those  who  will  measure  up  to  them. 


PROBLEMS  OF  WORLD  LIVING  75 

The  real  test  of  the  people  comes  after  the  desert  has 
been  made  to  rejoice  as  the  rose,  then  comes  the  trial  of 
spiritual  greatness.  Solomon's  glory  was  too  much  for 
Israel's  moral  fiber.  How  shall  we  face  our  new  day, 
with  its  demands  for  costly  sacrifices  for  the  sake  of 
aims  and  ideals  that  are  less  easy  to  apprehend  than  the 
rallying  cries  of  "  No  taxation  without  representation  " 
or  "  The  union  one  and  indivisible,"  with  purposes  less 
palpable  than  the  clearing  of  forests  and  the  crossing  of 
the  plains,  purposes  which  call  for  finer  heroism.'^  Are 
we  to  die  where  others  have  died  with  the  good  indeed 
attained  but  so  blindly  cherished  as  to  be  fatal  to  the 
best.? 

And  this  is  not  all;  we  were  thrown  into  the  world 
life  to  share  in  the  struggle  for  moral  ideals.  The  war 
brought  few  of  the  old  thrills  of  patriotism,  for  we  were 
not  fighting  for  the  glory  of  a  nation  but  for  the  rights 
of  humanity.  The  war  may  be  our  purging;  it  will 
certainly  be  our  testing.  It  called  for  pioneering  in  the 
realm  of  ideals. 

We  confess  that  we  were  caught  unprepared.  Certainly 
we  were  destitute  of  fighting  tools;  we  slept  too  long  in 
a  fool's  paradise  of  separation  as  though  we  could  be 
separate  from  humanity.  But  one  does  not  lessen  appre- 
ciation of  the  colossal  task  of  physical  preparation  in 
suggesting  that  America  was  not  wholly  without  prepara- 
tion of  an  even  more  essential  nature.  Even  before  war 
was  declared  the  college  youth  showed  that  they  were 
intellectually  prepared.  Since  then  the  streams  of  vol- 
unteers have  come  from  the  universities.  They  but  fol- 
lowed the  courses  that  idealism  flowing  from  these  centers 
had  traced.  The  wide  views  gained  in  education  had 
saved  them  from  provincialism  and  had  brought  a  world 
within  their  habits  of  thinking.  The  social  spirit  of  the 
universities  had  taught  them  to  think  in  terms  of  human 


76  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

sympathies.  That  preparation  which  education  had  given 
constitutes  just  the  preparation  which  the  making  of  a 
new  world  will  demand. 

The  problem  of  to-morrow  is  one  of  living  in  a  con- 
gested world.  It  involves  the  discovery  of  those  values 
which  all  can  enjoy  to  their  fullness  without  trespass  one 
upon  another.  It  is  a  problem  of  world-wide  social  justice 
under  conditions  of  most  intimate  neighboring.  We  will 
have  to  solve  in  world  living  the  very  problems  of  con- 
flicting interests  which  have  been  ours  at  home.  It  is 
an  extension  of  our  intense  social  problem;  are  we  ready 
for  it? 

We  have  been  living  in  the  glut  of  material  power 
and  prosperity.  Now  we  will  have  to  adjust  ourselves  to 
new  conditions.  The  prosperity  of  abundance  is  past. 
The  appalling  fact  that  the  tremendous  wealth  of  our 
day  is  accompanied  by  abject  poverty  is  evidence  that 
we  had  not  learned  how  to  live  under  conditions  of  material 
prosperity.  We  have  been  rudderless  on  the  tide  of 
riches  while  still  clamoring  for  new  tributaries.  Once 
the  problem  was  to  get  wealth  out  of  the  forests  and 
the  hills,  now  it  is  to  apply  that  wealth  without  waste 
to  the  whole  of  our  lives,  to  insure  its  highest  and 
enduring  values.  As  we  have  become  masters  of  the 
untamed  land  it  is  ours  also  to  become  masters  of  its 
untamed  crop  of  wealth.  Our  danger  is  that  the  rank 
growth  of  that  crop  shall  choke  us. 

There  is  little  danger  that  we  shall  delude  ourselves 
with  the  false  hope  that  the  new  day  will  come  in  a 
beautiful  roseate  flush  of  universal  benevolence  born  of 
affluence.  A  terrible  object  lesson  has  forced  us  to  aban- 
don the  program  of  salvation  by  material  civilization. 
Left  to  the  old  motives  and  the  old  methods  man  easily 
relapses  into  madness  we  thought  he  had  outgrown.  The 
struggles  of  the  weak  and  the  iniquities  of  the  strong 
are  not  of  the  past  alone.     They  did  not  end  when  the 


PROBLEMS  OF  WORLD  LIVING 

world  war  ended.  That  has  only  projected  on  a  larger 
screen  our  social  problem.  Now  the  sword  is  laid  away 
and  the  social  warfare  is  fiercer  and  more  cruel  than  ever. 
Our  social  problems  are  intensified  with  the  return  of 
peace.  The  competition  in  business  will  be  keener ;  the 
strain  of  readjustment  will  call  for  new  modes  of  organ- 
ization between  capital  and  labor,  the  worker  will  have 
tasted  new  power  and  greater  freedom  and  the  employer 
will  be  seeking  to  recover  from  heavy  exactions.  Shall 
we  look  for  solutions  only  in  conflict.^  Shall  we  who 
have  disowned  war  nationally  rely  on  it  industrially.'^ 
Shall  we  own  up  that  this  problem  is  too  big  for  our 
brain  .^  It  is  a  tremendous  issue,  but  the  very  intensity 
of  the  problem  is  the  measure  of  our  opportunity. 

CONTROLLING    IDEALS 

Again  our  hope  is  in  the  educational  ideal.  Our  hopes 
have  specific  bases.  First,  that  with  its  insistence  on 
personal  values,  education  also  insists  that  greatness  is 
only  by  growth  and  that  growth  is  not  a  matter  of 
accretion  but  of  development.  It  is  the  prophet  of  the 
gospel  that  there  are  riches  all  may  enjoy  without  any 
one  being  the  poorer,  that  there  is  property  that  all  may 
possess  in  common  and  yet  each  one  hold  for  his  own. 
It  is  our  hope  because  it  holds  out  the  one  great  religious 
message  this  age  needs.  We  can  look  for  nothing  beyond 
conflict  so  long  as  the  one  aim  of  every  man  is  to  possess 
all  he  can  of  the  world's  limited  stock  of  things.  There 
will  be  harmony  when  the  aim  of  life  is  not  to  possess 
but  to  enjoy,  not  to  put  things  in  our  names  but  to  use 
them  for  the  enriching  of  all  life.  It  is  our  hope  as  it 
leads  to  the  new  ultimate  aim  of  a  society  in  which  all  men 
unite  their  eff*orts  for  the  increase  of  the  common  goods 
of  love  and  joy,  of  truth  and  beauty. 

The  educational  ideal  gives  sanity  and  worth  to  our 
national    program.     It    reminds    our    youth    that,    as    a 


78  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

people,  we  are  not  great  simply  because  we  are  big,  nor 
because  we  have  so  much.  Barns  do  not  make  the  man 
nor  banks  the  nation.  Size  is  the  last  and  least  criterion 
in  the  scale  of  infinite  values.  Greatness  lies  in  ideals, 
it  is  revealed  in  human  standards.  It  is  manifest  in 
development.  Life  grows  only  as  it  comes  into  finer  and 
more  complex  relations.  A  man  is  greater  than  a  geologic 
mammoth  because  he  is  a  more  complex  organism.  The 
hope  of  to-morrow  lies  in  the  democratic-minded  who 
will  put  old  goods  into  new  scales,  who  will  teach  us  to 
spurn  some  of  our  highly  cherished  lumber,  who  will  help 
us  to  see  worth  and  wealth  as  yet  unknown.  We  shall 
seek  our  growth  as  a  people  intensively^  not  in  holding 
more  but  in  becoming  more.  Before  we  grasp  new  lands 
we  will  seek  to  make  our  own  better,  our  cities  places 
where  the  boys  and  girls  shall  play  on  the  streets  thereof, 
our  schools  homes  of  idealism.  The  increasing  complexity 
of  our  modem  life  means  for  us  the  opportunity  of  devel- 
opment. But  it  demands  more  of  us ;  it  requires  wider 
and  deeper  preparation.  The  future  with  its  greater 
social  complexity  calls  on  the  educator's  patience,  the 
pupil's  loyalty  and  the  people's  cheerful  payment  of  the 
price  of  training  the  powers,  disciplining  the  judgment  and 
developing  the  will  until  we  are  ready  for  this  new  day. 

Our  hope  is  in  the  educational  ideal  because  it  is  an 
ideal;  it  is  always  richer  with  promise  than  with  achieve- 
ment. It  is  prophetic.  The  educated  man  never  shrinks 
from  being  called  an  idealist.  He  rejoices  in  the  good 
and  the  glory  of  the  past  as  an  index  of  that  which  is 
to  be.  He  scorns  ease,  for  the  good  he  has  inherited 
constitutes  his  indebtedness  to  the  good  that  may  be.  He 
is  not  ashamed  of  great  emotions,  of  the  hopes  that  stir 
men  and  the  passions  that  compel  them,  for  he  has  learned 
that  all  existing  personal  wealth  has  been  created  in  the 
visions  of  enthusiasts;  the  world  has  ever  found  its  pot 
of  gold  because  it   followed  the  rainbow.     The   cynic's 


PROBLEMS  OF  WORLD  LIVING  79 

contempt  of  life  is  not  the  sign  of  culture ;  it  is  the  evidence 
of  intellectual  atrophy.  One  measure  of  a  man's  educa- 
tion is  his  response  to  great  stimuli.  If  the  poet's  appeal, 
the  prophet's  promise  or  warning,  the  patriot's  ardor 
mean  nothing  to  you,  you  have  not  seen  the  educational 
ideal,  you  are  not  educated.  "  Though  I  have  all  knowl- 
edge and  understand  all  mysteries,  and  though  I  speak 
with  the  tongue  of  an  angel  and  have  not  love  —  I  am 
nothing."  Life  is  desolate  without  ideals.  The  out- 
reaching  after  that  which  is  not  yet  seen,  the  answer  to 
that  which  cannot  be  demonstrated,  this  is  the  fruitage 
of  education.  This  is  the  reason  educated  men  meet  emer- 
gencies, build  bridges  which  make  concrete  their  visions, 
dig  canals  which  the  nations  have  declared  impossible  and 
enter  on  social  programs  which  earn  at  their  beginning 
only  the  laughter  of  the  practical.  This  is  what  might 
be  called  the  function  of  fools,  to  follow  the  ideal.  This 
is  that  which  the  world  has  ever  called  foolishness  whether 
seen  in  Jesus  at  Calvary,  Paul  at  Rome,  Garibaldi  in 
Italy,  Livingston  in  Africa,  or  Lincoln  in  Illinois.  These 
fools  are  the  people  who  have  seen  the  day  before  it  is 
full  morn,  who  believe  that  one  setting  of  the  sun  does 
not  mean  the  crack  of  doom,  who  in  the  night  carry 
the  light  within,  who  fear  not  the  future  because  they 
have  faced  the  past  and  have  found  the  eternal  values 
that  spring  up,  fresh  with  the  dew  of  every  new  day. 
They  live  in  the  strength  of  timeless  knowledge.  They 
are  ready  for  the  new  days  because  neither  the  rack  of 
clouds  at  dawn  nor  the  incoherent  cries  of  those  who  awake 
from  sleep  can  daunt  them ;  they  have  heard  of  other 
dawns  and  they  serve  the  ends  that  last  through  all  the 
days. 

Problems  of  industry  and  economic  relations  perplex 
us ;  under  organized  greed  men  writhe  until  they  rise  in 
hot  rebellion;  torn  by  passions  and  led  as  sheep  by  false 
and  greedy   shepherds   mobs   meet   and  battle  with   one 


80  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

another.  "  Is  this  democracy  ?  '^  we  cry ;  "  Then  give  us 
a  benevolent  autocracy  i  "  Yes,  this  is  democracy,  blind, 
untrained  and  in  the  dark.  Yet  these  are  better  men 
who  strive  for  their  ideals,  who  fight  for  freedom  —  even 
though  in  strange  ways  —  than  are  those  who  sit  as 
stall-fed  slaves.  And  the  cure  for  their  darkness  is  light, 
and  for  their  bitterness  true  brotherhood  and  for  all  their 
divisions  the  healing  of  a  common  love  and  the  recognition 
of  common  rights.  These  are  the  ways  we  all  must  learn. 
And  these  ways  we  must  teach  our  children  lest  they  fall 
heirs  to  a  world  sadder  far  than  ours. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE    SPIRITUAL,    NATUEE    OF    EDUCATION    IN    A    DEMOCRACY 

The  spiritual,  still  regarded  as  a  mysterious,  separate 
something,  appears  unrelated  to  the  problems  of  a  democ- 
racy; can  we  discover  it  as  an  integral  quality  in  life? 

Modem  emphasis  on  religious  education  has  one  serious 
danger,  that  we  shall  fall  into  the  habit  of  thinking  of  it 
as  entirely  separated  from  general  education,  saying  to 
ourselves,  Here  are  these  two,  general  education  and 
religious  education;  each  has  its  own  aim  and  its  own 
institutions,  workers  and  methods;  work  in  one  has  no 
necessary  relation  to  work  in  the  other.  Commonly  our 
mode  of  thought  to-day  permits  us  to  think  of  these  two 
quite  independently.  We  assume  that  general  education 
is  that  which  a  child  receives  in  public  school  and  college ; 
religious  education  is  that  which  the  Sunday  school 
attempts.  The  aim  of  the  first  is  recognized  by  all;  its 
processes  are  generally  indorsed;  but  about  the  other, 
religious  education,  there  still  remain  much  doubt  and 
more  indifference.  This  is  not  strange  so  long  as  religious 
education  continues  to  mean  instruction  about  religion, 
creating  an  annex  to  the  child's  educational  edifice  and 
furnishing  it  with  the  history  and  literature  of  religion. 
Given  a  good  school  system,  why  should  children  go  to 
an  additional  institution  to  receive  this  appendix  of 
knowledge?  Those  who  think  in  this  way  naturally  ask, 
is  it  really  essential  to  one's  life  equipment  to  get  this 
extra  knowledge? 

The  difficulty  arises  in  part  from  our  use  of  words ;  we 
have  been  speaking  of  general  education,  musical  educa- 
tion, business  education,  physical  education  and  religious 

81 


82  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

education  as  though  we  could  split  education  into  so  many 
fractions.  There  is  no  such  a  thing,  for  example,  as 
musical  education  unless  we  mean  that  all  the  process  of 
education  is  accomplished  in  a  musical  manner  or  by 
musical  methods.  Only  two  of  these  phrases  or  terms 
have  a  reasonable  basis;  general  education  is  conceivable 
as  signifying  the  entire  educational  process;  religious 
education  is  conceivable  as  signifying  a  special  aim  or 
value  to  be  given  to  all  education.  If  by  religious  educa- 
tion we  mean  the  special  processes  of  instruction  in 
religious  knowledge  alone  then  we  use  the  phrase  in  a 
misleading  manner.  Religious  education  does  include  this 
special  instruction,  but  it  also  includes  whatever  has  to 
do  with  the  full  development  and  the  social  realization 
of  a  person  as  a  religious  being. 

EdiLcation  is  religion  m  action.  Only  the  short-sighted 
mind  can  speak  of  the  separation  of  religion  and  edu- 
cation. They  are  not  two  separate  things  which  we  must 
somehow  harmonize;  they  are  related  as  are  thought  and 
action,  as  are  life  and  feeling.  Religion  is  not  some- 
thing to  be  added,  if  possible,  to  the  present  content  of 
education;  it  is  its. cause  and  motive.  And  education  is 
not  a  process  which  religion  can  use  for  its  ends,  but 
education  is  religion  finding  a  mode  in  lives.  All  true 
education  is  religious  in  the  degree  that  it  realizes  the 
possibilities  of  persons  growing  into  social  fullness ;  all 
religion  is  educational  in  that  it  moves  lives  out  into  the 
realization  of  social  destiny.  The  organizations  and 
mechanics  of  both  may  be  separate,  but  the  meanings, 
ideas  and  forces  of  both  are  inseparable.  We  cannot 
have  adequate  education  apart  from  essentially  religious 
concepts  of  persons  and  society,  and  it  is  hopeless  to 
think  of  religion  without  the  educational  ideal  of  the 
development  of  lives  and  society.  These  are  the  truisms 
of  which  we  must  often  assure  ourselves  lest  we  fall  into 
the  habit  of  partitioning  and  even  setting  up  in  conflict 


SPIRITUAL  NATURE  OF  EDUCATION       88 

the  great  forces  that  make  for  human  development.  In 
this  long  labor  that  alone  gives  life  worth  and  meaning, 
the  labor  to  realize  our  social  ideals,  to  have  a  world  of 
love  and  righteousness,  we  must  keep  alive  the  full  vision 
of  all  our  allies,  we  must  see  home  and  school  and  church 
as  the  great  forces  of  hope,  the  means  by  which  the  new 
day  and  the  better  world  is  to  be. 

It  is  highly  important  that  we  shall  not  permit  the 
building  of  a  barrier  across  the  field  of  education  with 
the  sacred  on  one  side  and  the  secular  on  the  other.  We 
must  try  to  avoid  the  divorce  that  has  come  into  the  rest 
of  our  thinking  as  though  one  day  were  sacred  and  the 
other  days  secular,  one  place  sacred  and  others  not,  one 
profession  sacred  and  others  devoid  of  religious  signifi- 
cance. We  are  trying  to  redeem  the  non-sacred  from 
the  implications  of  entire  separateness.  We  seek  not  alone 
one  sacred  day  but  the  sacredness  of  every  day  as  conse- 
crated to  man's  highest  good.  To-day  we  would  think  of 
all  professions  in  the  light  of  their  high  responsibilities, 
their  sacred  obligations  to  humanity.  There  is  henceforth 
nothing  common  or  profane  to  the  man  who  has  seen  how 
even  the  least  things  affect  that  which  is  most  sacred  of 
all,  human  personality.  The  idea  of  separation  into 
sacred  and  secular  is  really  so  modern  that  it  has  not 
obtained  ineradicable  rooting.  Once  practically  all  educa- 
tion was  under  the  recognized  sacred  authorities.  It  still 
carries  over  some  memory  of  that  association.  It  is  some- 
how difi'erent  from  other  human  interests.  It  must  be  re- 
stored to  human  reality  at  the  same  time  as  religion  un- 
dergoes a  like  process.  Then  it  ought  not  to  be  difficult 
to  prevent  the  unfortunate  cleavage  in  our  thinking  of 
these  two. 

Naturally  some  one  says.  But  we  cannot  mix  the 
religious  elements  into  general  education  in  a  country 
where  religious  freedom  is  consistently  observed.  That 
is  to  say,  the  public  schools  cannot  teach  religion.     Very 


^i, 


84  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

true;  but  that  is  not  at  all  what  we  are  thinking  about 
now ;  that  is  a  problem  which  will  be  considered  in  another 
place.  We  are  pleading  against  the  custom  of  parceling 
education  out  into  distinct  packages  labeled  "  sacred " 
and  "  secular."  Perhaps  we  can  best  see  how  illogical 
such  a  partition  is  by  considering  how  the  characteristics 
of  sacred  and  secular  are  common  to  all  true  forms  of 
education.   ^^^^^^^^ 

General  education  rmist  he  essentially  religious.  That 
which  we  call  secular  education  is  just  as  sacred  as  any 
other.  The  task  of  the  teacher  in  a  public  school  is, 
in  the  finest  sense,  as  truly  religious  as  the  task  of  the 
church-school  teacher.  Of  course  we  all  know  some  week- 
day teachers  who  are  more  effective  religiously  than 
are  some  church-school  teachers.  But  that  is  not  the 
point;  the  significant  consideration  goes  much  deeper: 
rightly  conceived  the  aim  of  public  education  involves  the 
most  sacred  concept  that  has  ever  come  to  the  human 
mind ;  it  is  nothing  less  than  this,  that  the  most  important 
enterprise  for  society,  as  society,  is  the  development  and 
organization  of  persons.  The  public-school  system  is  our 
social  recognition  of  the  sacredness  of  personality.  It 
is  democracy  directing  itself  to  the  development  of  its 
sources   in  personality. 

It  is  true  that  public  education  is  often  a  very  poor 
affair.  It  is  true  that  the  system  is  often  guilty  of 
crimes  against  personality.  It  is  true  that  few  work 
with  vision  and  the  greater  part  of  school  life  seems  to 
be  controlled  by  a  blind  following  of  traditions.  But  the 
ideal  is  there.  One  single  fact  stands  out  clear,  that 
education  is  the  largest  social  enterprise  of  our  day. 
Another  fact  has  always  controlled,  though  it  has  not 
always  been  patent,  that  this  our  largest  social  enterprise 
is  directed  toward  the  good  of  the  society  of  to-morrow. 
It  seeks  to  direct  the  growth  of  the  lives  that  make  the 


SPIRITUAL  NATURE  OF  EDUCATION       85 

citizenship  of  to-morrow.     It  is  devoted  to  persons.     It 
works  in  faith. 

General  education  is  sacred  because  it  deals  with  lives 
directly.     This  it  is  that  gives   sacredness  to   any  pro- 
fession, the  responsibility  it  has  for  persons.     If  religion  A- 
is  our  ideal  or  concept  of  the  meaning  and  value  of  life  y 
then  whatever  gives  meaning  or  value  to  life  is  to  that  / 
extent  religious.     The  aim  of  state  education  is  the  enrich- 
ing of  the  life  of  the  people.     It  is  building  itself  through 
its  developing  members.     It  seeks  finer  people  in  a  finer 
world.     It  is  doing  the  work  which  we  think  of  God  as 
doing.     The  real  meaning  of  every  school,  that  is  every 
one  which  is  more  than  an  information  packing  house,  is 
that  men  might  have  life  more  abundantly.     It  works  that 
the  ideals  of  the  race  may  be  realized. 

Public  education  reveals  the  soul  of  democracy.  Pub- 
lic education  is  our  supreme  demonstration  of  democ- 
racy. It  takes  more  than  universal  suffrage  to  make  a 
democratic  people.  It  requires  a  popular  aim,  a  popular 
purpose  —  that  is  an  aim  conceived  by  people  for  people 
—  as  the  ultimate  aim  of  all  social  life.  It  means  a 
people  united  by  the  dominating  aim  that  life  shall  grow 
from  more  to  more.  It  means  the  determination  of  all 
the  mechanisms  of  civil  life  by  that  dominant  aim.  A 
democratic  state  is  that  state  which  exists  that  its  people 
may  find  fullness  of  life,  that  their  social  vision  may  be 
realized.  Now  this  is  the  direct  aim  of  the  public  school. 
H;ere  democracy  is  immediately  engaged  in  its  supreme 
work. 

Somehow  that  high  aim  must  be  held  clear  above  all 
the  maze  of  details  of  school  work.  We  must  clearly  avow 
the  spiritual  character  growing  out  of  the  democratic 
purpose  of  education.  Somehow  a  responsibility  for  per- 
sons must  be  laid  on  the  institution  that  is  shaping  the 
ihabits,  forming  the  ideals  and  setting  the  standards  of 


86  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

living  for  our  children.  Our  concern  for  democracy  will 
help  us  to  see  always  the  spiritual  significance  of  the  social 
aggregation  of  all  the  children  of  a  community  day  after 
^  day.  It  will  help  us  to  realize  the  larger  processes  that 
are  going  on  in  the  school,  those  to  which  lessons  and 
learning  are  incidental,  the  actual  determination  of  the 
spirit  of  youth  and  their  steady  habituation  in  modes  of 
social  living. 

The  school  is  the  largest  spiritual  influence  outside  the 
family.  Hour  after  hour  for  five  days  of  the  week  all 
the  children  of  a  community  are  together  learning  what 
life  means  and  what  it  is  worth.  How  foolish  it  seems 
for  the  church,  reaching  only  some  of  these  children  for 
only  a  few  minutes  every  week,  to  stand  on  one  side 
and  to  assume  that  its  work  alone  is  religious  and  all 
the  rest,  though  very  useful,  is  still,  at  best,  non-religious. 
In  the  measure  that  any  institution  interprets  life,  gives 
meaning  to  life  and  trains  in  habits  of  living,  trains  as 
a  society,  it  is  religious.  Since  the  public  school  to-day 
does  this  work  consciously  more  fully  than  any  other  insti- 
tution certainly  there  is  a  very  real  and  important  sense 
in  which  it  is  engaged  in  religious  work.  Above  all  it  is 
religious  as  by  an  experience  in  democracy  it  prepares  for 
full  life  in  democracy,  that  is,  it  is  preparing  for  a^social 
order  determined  by  spiritual  values. 

PUBLIC    SCHOOL   AND    RELIGION 

It  scarcely  seems  necessary  to  face  the  common  objec- 
tion that  the  school  cannot  be  religious  because  it  does 
not  teach  religion.  That  is  to  confound  two  different 
things,  religion  as  a  quality  of  life  and  an  experience,  on 
one  side,  and  religion  as  a  field  of  knowledge.  In  the  lat-~ 
ter  sense  religion  is  not  necessarily  religious ;  it  is  religious 
only  in  the  degree  that  it  imparts  the  religious  quality 
to  life,  only  as  it  gives  meaning  and  value  and  direction 
to  the  whole  of  life.     The  school  is  religious,  but  it  is  not 


SPIRITUAL  NATURE  OF  EDUCATION       87 

sectarian;  it  is  not  ecclesiastical.  We  have  been  using 
the  word  "  religious  "  as  a  descriptive  adjective.  Here 
it  expresses  a  quality  and  a  purpose,  not  a  certain  group 
of  facts,  not  a  peculiar  field  of  knowledge  and  not  certain 
special  forms  of  activities.  Religion  never  will  be  a 
dominating  force  in  life  until  we  take  it  out  of  its  ecclesi- 
astical pigeonhole  and  open  our  eyes  to  see  it  as  a  quality 
and  force  and  an  ideal  everywhere. 

The  purpose  of  the  school  lies  with  a  religious  per- 
son. The  schools  are  necessarily  religious  because  they 
deal  with  persons  who  are  essentially  religious.  They 
cannot  take  boys  and  girls  and  split  off  a  section  of  their 
personalities  which  may  be  called  the  religious  nature  and 
bid  them  leave  that  outside  the  schoolhouse.  They  cannot 
do  this  because  there  is  no  sectional  partition  in  human 
nature.  It  is  the  whole  person  who  is  religious  just  as  it 
is  the  whole  person  who  is  being  educated. 

In  all  thinking  on  the  problems  and  plans  of  religious 
education  few  things  are  more  important  than  this,  to 
have  always  clearly  in  mind  the  fact  that  human  nature 
is  not  a  divisible  thing;  always  and  everywhere  education 
is  dealing  with  the  same  person  and  always  in  a  very  true 
sense  it  deals  with  the  whole  of  the  same  person.  The 
boy  who  goes  to  Sunday  school  may  not  look  like  the 
same  boy  who  is  yelling  on  the  school  playground;  but 
he  is  the  same,  not  only  in  name  but  in  nature.  He  takes 
the  same  nature  to  both  the  schools.  The  Sunday  school 
has  for  a  long  time  assumed  that  when  John  came  to 
its  classes  he  brought  only  his  spiritual  powers,  but  that 
mistake  was  no  more  common  and  no  more  serious  than 
the  other  assumption,  that  he  takes  only  his  mental 
powers  to  the  public  school.  The  Sunday  school  is 
recovering  from  the  mistake  of  attempting  to  teach  souls 
without  minds ;  but  the  public  school  must  turn  from  the 
error  of  trying  to  teach  minds  without  souls. 

Whatever  any  influence  of  life  does  with  a  boy  or  a 


88  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

girl  it  does  with  them  as  persons,  not  as  minds,  memories 
or  spirits.  Whatever  change  the  school  effects  is  a  change 
in  a  life,  in  the  totality  of  a  personality.  To  change 
any  one^s  mind  is  to  change  him,  is  to  change  his  life. 
This  is  now  recognized  in  modem  Sunday  schools;  but 
it  must  be  recognized  as  precisely  what  is  taking  place  in 
any  school. 

As  soon  as  we  escape  from  the  traditional  concepts  of 
human  beings  as  divided  into  separate  departments  or 
faculties  and  grasp  their  essential  unity  we  find  it  impos- 
sible to  think  of  the  public  schools  as  entirely  separated 
from  the  religious  lives  of  the  pupils.  They  cannot  be 
separated  from  any  part  of  their  lives. 

It  is  impossible  to  have  an  educational  effect  and  avoid 
a  religious  resvlt.  The  important  thing  is  to  realize  that 
whatever  affects  a  person  must  affect  him  as  a  religious 
being,  that  whatever  really  affects  his  character  must 
really  have  some  religious  quality  in  it.  Whatever  the 
attitude  of  the  school  may  be  on  "  religious  questions  '* 
it  cannot  avoid  contact  with  religious  persons  and  it  can- 
not avoid  affecting  those  persons  as  to  the  value  and 
meaning  of  life  for  them. 

One  danger  lies  here,  however,  that  teachers  shall 
become  unduly  conscious  of  the  religious  nature  of  their 
tasks,  shall  feel  that  they  must  always  be  thinking  of  the 
effect  of  their  work  on  religious  natures.  The  better 
>course  is  for  one  simply  to  do  the  work  that  has  to  be 
done,  giving  each  life  every  possible  stimulus  and  means 
of  nurture  without  attempting  an  analysis  of  the  parts 
or  phases  of  growth.  Again  we  have  to  insist  on  the 
unity  of  the  person  who  is  being  educated.  Only  harm 
can  come  from  attempts  to  disintegrate  the  total  process 
of  growth  in  order  to  determine  how  a  soul  is  getting  on. 
The  fact  of  religious  responsibility  is  not  an  occasion 
for  morbid  anxiety  but  rather  one  for  rejoicing;  it  must 
be  seen  as  the  ground  for  greater  dignity  in  the  teaching 


SPIRITUAL  NATURE  OF  EDUCATION       89 

profession ;  it  must  give  the  teacher  the  j  oy  of  sharing  in 
a  great  and  holy  work.     \/- 

CHURCHES    AND    SCHOOLS 

After  all  what  does  this  religious  responsibility  and 
privilege  mean  but  that  public  education  deals  with  lives? 
The  schools  teach  the  fine  art  of  living.  That  is  their 
business.  This  is  their  immediate,  practical  contact  with 
all  religious  activities.  Religion  is  the  motivation  of 
life;  it  is  such  a  vision  of  the  meaning  and  value  of  life 
as  transforms  and  compels  the  life.  The  church  and  the 
school  have  the  same  task:  to  lead  people  into  fullness 
of  living.  The  difference  lies  principally  in  two  facts, 
First,  that  the  church  being  an  entirely  free,  voluntary 
body  can  select  and  use  its  own  materials  and  fields  of 
training.  Second,  churches  work  with  selected  groups 
while  the  school  accepts  the  entire  community.  Each 
church  uses  the  special  teachings  of  its  own  group.  But 
the  schools  being  the  common  agencies  of  all  the  people, 
are  limited  to  those  forms  and  activities  about  which  there 
is  general  public  agreement.  This  gives  the  church  a 
much  wider  range  of  interests  as  to  subjects.  The  social 
limitations  of  the  schools  have  the  practical  effect  of 
preventing  the  current  concepts  of  religion  and  its  special 
interpretations  from  coming  into  use  there.  But  they 
do  not  prevent  the  greatest  of  all  concepts,  the  glowing 
ideals  of  life  and  its  worth  and  possibilities.  On  the 
other  hand  churches  are  limited  by  their  group  aspects 
which  often  tend  to  give  children  caste  training. 

If  we  were  to  ask  the  schools  what  product  they  have 
for  society  they  would  answer  "  Citizens."  They  seek 
to  give  back  these  boys  and  girls  trained  to  live  the 
social  life  of  their  day.  If  we  ask  the  church  as  to  its 
product  do  we  not  look  for  the  same  answer,  "  Men  and 
women  who  do  the  will  of  God  here  ".^  The  training  in 
the  life  of  present-day  society  js,  at  least,  an  essential 


90  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

part  of  training  to  live  in  the  democracy  of  God.  A 
sense  of  the  unity  of  such  work  must  be  encouraged.  The 
church  must  recognize  every  teacher  of  lives  as  a  spiritual 
agent  and  servant.  If  it  does  not  do  so  it  loses  the  aid 
of  its  best  allies.  More,  if  it  does  not  do  so  it  gives 
evidence  that  it  does  not  know  its  own  task.  No  one 
can  seriously  seek  the  development  of  lives  and  the  organ- 
ization of  an  ideal  society  without  discovering  and  recog- 
nizing every  agency  that  develops  lives.  Whoever  touches 
a  life  to  make  it  more  or  less,  to  give  it  new  riches  and 
strength,  to  teach  it  the  supreme  art  of  living,  works  with 
the  great  Life  of  which  we  are  a  part. 

PvhUc  education  is  sustained  by  spiritual  ideals.  Es- 
sentially the  best  ideals  of  public  education  are  religious 
ideals ;  they  look  to  the  realization  of  the  noblest  hopes 
the  human  race  has  ever  cherished.  They  hold  before  us 
the  glowing  vision  of  a  new  earth  that  is  a  new  heaven. 
Every  true  teacher  is  an  idealist  in  the  simple,  everyday 
sense.  They  have  in  their  hearts  the  evidence  of  things 
not  yet  seen.  Their  faith  carries  them  forward.  Nothing 
could  be  more  dreary  than  the  daily  routine  of  telling  old 
facts  to  unwilling  pupils ;  nothing  could  be  more  like  a 
tread-mill  existence  than  the  dreary  round  through  a 
curriculum  that  is  no  more  than  a  highway  paved  with 
information.  Merely  to  drill  unwilling  .slaves  in  intel- 
lectual exercises  is  to  become  a  slave  where  one  might  be 
a  priest.  Professional  pride  is  the  sense  of  the  worth 
of  service  in  the  light  of  its  high  aim.  Teachers  believe 
that  education  is  the  means  by  which  the  world  is  coming 
to  self-realization.  They  see  democracy  coming  into  its 
own.  They  look  beyond  school  mechanics  to  their  splen- 
did end  in  a  finer,  nobler  society.  If  they  teach  for  wages 
they  are  poor  economists ;  the  same  energies  would  give 
larger  rewards  anywhere  else.  They  are  not  prone  to 
boast  of  the  fact,  but  they  labor  not  for  salaries  but  for 
society. 


SPIRITUAL  NATURE  OF  EDUCATION       91 

Just  as  the  church  is  sustained  by  that  vision  of  a 
world  in  which  men  live  in  love  and  do  justice  and  find 
and  follow  the  truth,  so  is  our  system  of  public  schools 
maintained  and  conducted  in  the  high  hopes  that  men  can 
learn  to  live  and  to  so  live  that  the  outstanding  ills  of 
this  day  may  be  no  more  and  a  society  that  fulfills  our 
hopes  can  come  to  be.  Surely  this  is  working  for  what 
the  church  calls  the  will  of  God.  And  that  consciousness 
is  peculiarly  keen  in  the  school  of  our  day. 

The  social  theory  m  education  is  a  further  indication 
of  religious  purpose.  This  is  the  period  of  the  social 
emphasis  in  education.  That  means  not  alone  that  we 
recognize  that  all  education  is  a  social  process,  but  it 
means,  too,  that  we  see  that  these  social  processes  must 
have  social  results.  Education  not  only  uses  social 
experience  but,  because  it  is  social  experience,  it  makes  j 
society.  Evidently  we  have  hardly  caught  sight  of  the  \J 
tremendous  religious  implications  of  modern  education.  /\ 
Besides  the  considerations  advanced  we  might  mentioiiN! 
the  religious  nature  of  the  school  processes ;  here  we  have  \ 
three  great  social  facts  cooperating:  first,  an  ideal  social 
group  affording  children  a  tremendously  potent  social 
experience ;  second,  a  social  theory  dominating  the  methods 
of  modern  education,  and,  third,  a  social  aim  gradually 
emerging  as  the  reason  for  and  the  ultimate  aim  of  the 
work  of  the  school.  Along  with  this  comes  the  fact  of 
the  social  emphasis  and  interpretation  of  present-day 
religion.  It  has  discovered  the  world  in  which  it  works 
and  it  sees  it  as  the  object  of  its  work.  It  is  satisfied  no 
longer  with  plucking  selected  individuals  from  an  earth 
of  woe  into  a  heaven  of  selfish  felicity;  it  seeks  to  bring 
about  a  society  which  is  the  very  family  of  God.  In  this 
it  works  immediately  with  the  schools,  no  longer  conceived 
as  packing  houses  of  information  but  seen  as  social  insti- 
tutions organizing  social  experience  that  the  new  society 
may  be  realized.     That  is  the  faith  of  teachers  to-day. 


92  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

Whatever  else  is  true,  the  true  teacher  must  be  a 
religious  person  for  to  be  an  educator  implies  that  one 
has  faith  in  life  as  growth  and  this  is  to  make  a  spiritual 
interpretation  of  the  universe.  The  teacher  is  one  to 
whom  life  means  for  every  one  just  the  chance  to  become 
and  to  become  fully  in  the  life  of  all.  The  concept  that 
lives  may  grow  and  that  all  life  may  increase,  develop, 
find  harmony  and  fulfill  its  hopes  underlies  all  educational 
eff^ort.  But  the  teacher  is  one  who,  as  it  were,  says  to 
the  world,  I  believe  so  much  in  life  as  growth  that  I 
give  myself  wholly  to  this  as  my  first  purpose,  and  not 
to  my  own  growth  alone  but  to  aiding  the  growth  of  all. 
Each  man^s  work  is  really  his  creed  in  action.  Your 
religion  is  what  you  do  for  the  world.  To  give  greater 
meaning  and  worth  to  life  is  surely  the  most  religious 
service  any  one  could  render.  The  world  is  really 
religious  in  the  measure  that  life,  the  life  of  all,  becomes 
rich  and  full.  It  is  not  talking  about  religion  that  gives 
life  its  divine  quality,  it  is  finding  that  quality  and  worth 
of  life  that  makes  the  world  religious.  Many  a  school 
has  done  more  to  make  a  community  religious  than  all 
its  churches,  for  often  they  have  given  it  nothing  but 
analyses  of  religion  while  it  has  led  the  people  into  more 
life;  it  has  opened  for  them  the  world  of  the  spirit;  it 
has  lifted  their  eyes  from  things  to  the  eternal  facts ;  it 
has  helped  them  to  love  one  another  and  to  live  together 
kindly,  cooperatively;  it  has  enriched  for  all  the  life  of 
things  and  made  it  but  the  means  of  the  life  that  is  more 
than  things. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE    SCHOOL    OF    DEMOCRACY 

Society  has  a  social  purpose;  its  highest  duty  is  the 
development  of  a  more  perfect  society.  The  degree  to 
which  this  primary  duty  is  recognized  becomes  the  measure 
of  the  democratic  tendencies  of  any  society,  and  our  imme- 
diate community  groups  are  the  societies  in  which  this 
ideal  must  be   demonstrated. 

Democracy  is  realized  in  the  degree  that  society  adopts 
the  program  of  the  development  of  persons.  There  are 
many  evidences  of  social  consciousness  of  such  a  purpose.^ 
There  are  signs  of  recognition  of  its  educational  char- 
acter. There  are  those  who  see  its  spiritual  significance. 
The  college  sophomore  is  not  the  only  one  who  asks,  What 
do  we  live  for?  Older  men  come  back  with  deep  serious- 
ness to  that  question.  It  appears  in  an  enlarged  form: 
What  do  we  all  live  for?  When  one  is  conscious  of  society 
there  must  surely  be  some  questionings  as  to  its  purpose. 
And  are  we  not  under  intimations  of  meaning  as  to  our 
world  life?  We  hope  for  a  finer  order  of  life,  growing 
put  of  this  present,  one  in  which  the  inner  life  really 
shall  be  supreme.  But  whether  we  thus  cherish  high 
vision  or  hope  only  for  proximate  improvements  it  is  quite 
clear  that  life  ought  to  have  a  plan,  and  life's  organiza- 
tion, in  society,  ought  not  to  spend  itself  without  purpose. 
If  one  looks  at  a  village  or  a  city,  with  its  manifold  com- 
plex activities,  there  ought  to  be  an  answer  to  the  question, 
To  what  end  all  this  endeavor.? 

lAs  in  the  development  of  the  social  sciences,  in  attention  to 
eugenics,  in  courses  of  popular  study  on  social  welfare,  in  the 
quickened  conscience  of  churches  on  social  needs  and  in  the  tendency 
to  predicate  social  programs  on  human  needs. 

93 


94  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

Granted  the  social  aim  of  society,  what  is  the  program 
for  its  attainment?  Here  we  have  to  plead  guilty  to 
the  pathetic  indictment  so  vigorously  presented  by 
Wallace  ^  and  acknowledge  that,  while  we  have  applied 
science  to  practically  every  other  phase  of  life  we  have 
developed  no  technique  and  no  scientific  theory  of  the 
development  of  the  personal  qualities  and  phases  of  life. 
Boasting  of  progress  in  a  thousand  other  fields,  of  what 
worth  is  it  to  us  if  we,  the  masters  and  users  of  these 
processes,  ourselves  show  no  improvement?  In  what  ways 
are  our  modern  methods  more  efficient  in  the  development 
of  character  than  were  those  of  Egypt,  or  in  the  Athens 
of  Socrates  or  the  Rome  of  Cicero?  True  we  have  multi- 
plied schools  and  democratized  the  processes  of  instruc- 
tion ;  we  have  systems  of  schools ;  but  it  would  be  impos- 
sible to  show  that  their  courses  are  determined  by  the 
needs  of  society,  by  any  program  for  the  development 
of  society.  The  difficulty  lies  in  the  fact  that  we  have 
no  consciousness  of  a  real  social  program.  The  large 
game  of  living  society  does  not  play  in  any  completeness ; 
it  rather  develops  sporadic  plays,  parts  of  the  game.  We 
discuss  democracy  as  though  it  were  one  of  a  number  of 
efficiencies  which  society  would  do  well  to  acquire,  failing 
to  see  it  as  the  essential  program  of  society,  as  the  real 
business  of  developing  the  lives  of  all. 

Perhaps  the  situation  is  not  as  bad  as  at  first  appears. 
The  very  nature  of  society  establishes  certain  educational 
efficiencies.  The  function  of  social  education  is  not  im- 
posed on  society ;  it  is  inherent  in  its  nature.  Society 
cannot  stop  educating  itself  because  it  cannot  cease  associ- 
ating itself.  It  cannot  cease  to  be  a  school  of  social 
living  so  long  as  it  affords  an  experience  of  social  living. 
As  the  social  order  becomes  more  complex  it  becomes  a 
school  for  higher  living.     Even  our  present  competitive 

1 "  Social  Environment  and  Moral  Progress,"  Alfred  Russell  Wal- 
lace (Cassell,  1913). 


THE  SCHOOL  OF  DEMOCRACY  95 

order,  rent  and  torn  by  failure  and  disaster,  plowed  by 
discontent  and  watered  with  ideals,  becomes  the  soil  in 
which  a  new  democracy  grows. 

Social  experience  is  the  most  effective  school.  In  liv- 
ing with  people  democracy  is  learned.  We  cannot  say, 
Lo  here !  or,  Lo  there  is  the  school  of  democracy !  It 
is  everywhere.  It  is  wherever  lives  are  gaining  vision, 
forming  motives  and  ideals,  establishing  habits  and  devel- 
oping methods  of  living.  It  is  in  every  family,  every 
school,  every  village  and  city  way,  every  social  gathering, 
every  college  and  factory  and  store,  for  good  or  ill.  Of 
course  this  is  one  of  those  very  simple  facts,  a  truism, 
as  commonplace  as  to  speak  of  the  earth's  perpetual 
motion.  But  a  truism  is  that  which  is  so  true  it  is  always 
likely  to  be  overlooked.  We  know  that  education  is 
continuous,  going  on  everywhere ;  but  we  do  not  act  upon 
the  fact;  we  do  not  plan  our  streets  nor  control  them  in 
the  belief  that  character  is  being  determined  more  in  them 
than  in  the  school-seats.  We  acknowledge  the  fact  of 
continuous  education  but  we  limit  our  attempts  at  direc- 
tion to  schools.  We  speak  of  systems  of  education  and 
delude  ourselves  in  watching  the  intricacy  of  operations 
in  their  little  sphere.  But  the  whole  of  education  cannot 
be  systematized,  though  it  must  be  realized;  it  must  be 
viewed  with  a  comprehension  of  its  forces  and  their 
effects. 

Educational  potencies  must  he  recognized  and  under- 
stood if  they  are  to  be  wisely  used.  The  first  step  to 
be  taken  in  the  preparation  of  the  new  democracy  is  to 
understand  the  constantly  operative  forces  which  are 
determining  its  character.  That  will  compel  a  consider- 
ation of  all  that  happens,  especially  in  the  lives  of  the 
young,  in  the  light  of  its  educational  effects.  Forgetting 
our  traditional  formalisms  of  education,  with  beginnings 
and  endings,  we  will  think  of  the  cradle,  home  life,  the 
long,  sweet  and  happy  play  of  childhood,  the  growing  so- 


96  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

ciety  that  extends  down  the  streets,  takes  In  the  school  and 
widens  out  into  the  whole  world  as  the  child's  and  man's 
never  recessing  school.  All  the  environment  of  growing 
lives  will  be  seen  in  the  light  of  effects,  under  the  questions, 
In  what  ways  does  this  help  to  make  the  child  a  true  and 
fit  member  of  society?  In  what  ways  does  this  qualify 
him  for  democracy?  New  scales  of  values  will  be  applied 
to  the  physical  conditions  of  family  life,  new  measures  to 
community  conditions,  streets,  amusements,  newspapers, 
books  and  occupations.  Instead  of  asking  what  do  men 
make  out  of  them,  we  shall  ask,  what  men  are  made  by 
them?  Nor  must  we  impatiently  say,  these  are,  again, 
but  truisms,  for  we  do  not  habitually  think  or  act  in 
this  manner  regarding  the  real  factors,  the  everyday 
experience,  that  makes  men  and  women. 

VARIED    ACTIVITIES    IN    EDUCATION 

But  does  not  this  general  concept  of  all  life  as  a  process 
of  education  leave  us  in  vague  confusion  of  mind  because 
of  the  interweaving  of  the  many  agencies,  and  in  a  state 
of  helplessness  because  of  their  lack  of  definite  educational 
characteristics?  There  need  be  no  more  serious  diffi- 
culties here  than  are  found  in  any  real  system  of  educa- 
tion, for  all  this  variety  and  intricacy,  found  in  the 
common  experience  of  living,  is  essential  to  the  develop- 
ment, the  education  of  such  a  complex  as  man  Even 
in  the  school  there  must  be  approximately  similar  variety 
or  the  school  fails  to  educate.  The  variety  and  infor- 
mality of  everyday  experience  increases  its  educational 
potency.  As  to  any  attempt  to  organize  it,  that  is  not 
the  principal  need,  rather  we  need  to  organize  our  own 
thinking  about  all  that  is  happening  around  us  and  to 
give  it  a  guiding  spirit  of  life.  Schematic  control  can 
only  wisely  develop  as  it  follows  a  recognition  of  functions 
which  has  come  out  of  long  and  patient  study. 

Social  agencies  serve  as  ediucators  each  according  to 


THE  SCHOOL  OF  DEMOCRACY  97 

its  own  function.  Perhaps  the  lines  between  the  different 
forms  of  experience  in  life  are  less  vague  than  we  are 
accustomed  to  think.  If  we  analyze  social  experience 
into  the  family,  the  play-group,  the  school,  the  com- 
munity and  industry  or  occupation  we  have  fairly  distinct 
lines  emerging  which  each  form  of  experience  deals  with 
as  a  distinct  phase  in  one's  education,  and,  in  the  order 
stated,  there  is  indicated  the  steps  of  development.  Each 
one  is  a  circle  of  experience  containing  the  preceding 
experience  and  reaching  out  to  the  next  and  larger  one. 
Each  form  of  social  experience  has  in  it  the  elements 
preparing  one  for  Hfe  in  the  larger  form.  Each  has  a 
definite  part  to  play  in  education  for  democracy. 

The  need  of  an  educational  standard.  If  education 
is  going  on  everywhere  and  all  the  time,  why  worry  .^^ 
Why  not  simply  seek  to  improve  life  in  general  and  let 
education  take  care  of  itself?  The  answer  is  that  this 
is  precisely  the  proper  procedure  provided  we  know  just 
what  life  in  general  ought  to  be,  and  in  order  to  know 
this  we  have  to  determine  standards  of  life,  standards 
of  growth  of  persons.  We  cannot  tell  how  society  ought 
to  be  ordered  until  we  think  it  out  in  educational  terms. 
We  do  not  know  what  is  wrong  with  our  times  until  we 
examine  them  in  the  light  of  their  effects  on  lives,  until 
we  test  them  by  the  educational  gauge.  How  do  we  know 
that  a  six-day  week  and  an  eight-hour  day  are  best? 
Not  by  our  own  desires  for  rest,  nor  by  any  traditional 
imperative.  We  know  only  in  the  light  of  what  is  best 
for  man's  all-round  development.  We  test  all  conditions 
of  life  by  whether  they  are  favorable  or  otherwise  to 
the  growth  and  happiness  of  man  as  a  social  being.  And 
constantly  new  factors  come  into  our  tests ;  even  the 
slave-holder  tested  conditions  by  their  physical  effects  on 
the  efficiency  of  his  slaves ;  we  have  to  move  beyond  that 
and  test  our  cities,  our  streets,  factories  and  homes  by 
what  they  do  for  man  as  a  free  spirit. 


98  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

So  that  an  educational  standard  gives  a  clue  to  the 
worth,  the  value  and  righteousness  of  life's  conditions. 
It  suggests  a  social  order  determined  wholly  by  a  con- 
^  trolling  purpose  to  cause  all  conditions  to  stimulate  the 
growth  of  persons,  the  realization  of  their  powers,  not 
alone  of  action,  but  of  thought  and  feeling,  of  aspiration 
and  ideal.  That  would  be  a  democracy  of  the  spirit,  for 
that  purpose  would  rise  out  of  the  common  will  and  be 
devoted  to  the  common  well-being.  That  cannot  come 
until  we  all  learn  steadily  to  think  through  the  life  of 
our  everyday  experience,  of  family  and  school  and  com- 
munity and  see  them  as  they  determine  the  lives  of  people,^ 
the  breadth  and  depth  and  wealth  of  their  lives. 

So  far  we  have  an  educational  consciousness  only  as  to 
the  schools  and  the  colleges  and  universities;  what  would 
be  the  effect  if  we  were  to  accustom  ourselves  to  thinking 
in  educational  terms  of  the  family,  and  of  the  community 
life.?  What  further  changes  would  take  place  should  we 
emphasize,  under  education,  the  training  and  development 
of  the  spiritual  nature?  Should  we  be  able  to  develop 
a  program  of  education  which  would  include  equally  all 
phases  of  human  development,  which  would  prepare 
properly  for  competent  and  complete  social  living  because 
it  called  on  every  one  of  the  agencies  of  life  to  play  its 
full  part.J^  Such  a  program  would  not  depend  on  formal 
schools  alone;  it  would  coordinate  the  powers  of  every 
agency  and  of  every  institution  into  a  program  for  all 
lives. 

A  real  program  of  education  for  democracy  —  and  this 
is  the  same  as  speaking  of  a  real  program  of  full  educa- 
tion —  would  determine  the  part  played  by  each  agency 
or  institution  in  its  social  function ;  it  would  determine 

1  See  studies  on  "  The  Functions  of  Community  Agencies "  in 
Beligious  Education  for  Feb.,  1918  (Vol  XIII,  1)  in  which  thirteen 
agencies  are  considered;  also  on  "Libraries,"  April,  1918  (Vol. 
XIII,  2). 


THE  SCHOOL  OF  DEMOCRACY  99 

the  character  of  the  relations  of  the  growing  life  to 
each  institution  by  two  things,  the  need  of  that  life  and 
the  purpose  of  democracy. 

THE    FUNCTION    OF    THE    FAMILY 

Any  program  which  includs  all  the  powers  of  lives 
for  all  the  purposes  of  society  will  give  the  place  of 
first  importa/nce  to  the  family.  Its  function  is  that  of 
bringing  lives  into  the  world  and  nurturing  them  in  a 
small  social  group.  It  has  a  more  distinctly  personal 
function  than  any  other  institution.  First,  because  it  deals 
with  the  young  on  every  side  of  their  lives,  it  has  no 
reserves  or  limitations  during  early  years;  it  has  free- 
dom of  access  to  the  feeling,  judgment  and  will  in  a 
constant  and  most  effective  manner.  Second,  it  accom- 
plishes its  educational  ends  by  personal  means ;  it  educates 
by  influences,  and  personal  contacts,  in  a  word  by  being 
a  society ;  and.  Third,  its  purpose  is  avowedly  more 
personal  than  any  other  agency.  It  is  known  by  the 
kind  of  persons  it  produces.  It  is  proud  when  its  mem- 
bers secure  the  wealths  of  personality.  Fourth,  it  reaches 
lives  in  the  years  when  the  greatest  part  of  the  educational 
process  is  being  perfected.  If  the  child  learns  more  in 
the  first  five  years  than  in  all  the  rest  of  his  life  then 
the  home  must  be  the  greatest  of  all  schools. 

It  may  seem  difficult  to  state  the  precise  task  of  an 
institution  which  appears  to  have  all  tasks  for  its  own 
at  least  for  the  first  years  of  childhood.  But  two  clarify- 
ing facts  are  to  be  noted:  First,  that  society  is  tending 
to  take  the  sole  responsibility  for  several  phases  of  early 
training  away  from  the  individual  family  and  place  it 
on  the  social  group,  and  Second,  there  are  certain  well- 
defined  areas  of  responsibility,  indicated  by  the  nature 
and  function  of  the  family,  which  society  is  assigning  to 
it  most  distinctly. 

Society  does  tend  to  relieve  the  family  of  some  immediate 


100  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

responsibilities  by  itself  caring  for  the  health  of  infants 
and  the  young.  The  family  has  ceased  to  be  its  own 
physician  just  as  it  has  ceased  to  be  its  own  weaver  and 

,  tailor.  But  there  is  no  tendency  to  establish  social 
machinery  which  will  take  the  place  of  parents  in  the 
care  of  the  child's  early  mind  and  will.  In  fact  one  of 
the  reasons  for  organizing  social  aid  to  the  family  in 
its  physical  task  is  that  it  may  be  stronger  and  have 
greater  freedom  for  its  spiritual  duty.  One  thing  society 
certainly  has  a  right  to  expect  of  every  family  and  that 
is  that  its  first  concern  shall  be  for  the  characters  of 
the  children.  Parents  are  under  social  obligation  to 
organize  the  home  for  the  education  of  the  spirit,  for 
training  young  lives  in  the  motives  and  habits  of  social 
living. 

There  has  been  a  tendency  to  evade  the  responsibility 
of  the  family  for  the  early  development  of  social  good- 
will and  social  ideals.  Parents,  recognizing  their  own 
failures,  have  demanded  that  the  schools  rectify  their 
errors  and  make  up  their  deficiencies.  But  that  is  im- 
possible.    A  child  is  not  clay  to  be  given  to-day  a  twist 

.  this  way  and  to-morrow  to  have  the  twist  taken  out  of 
him.  The  schools  begin  too  late;  character  is  not  fixed, 
but  it  is  well  formed  by  the  time  children  go  to  school. 
Whatever  value  moral  training  may  have  in  the  schools 
it  cannot  have  the  values  of  beginnings.  To  attempt  to 
build  national  character  on  school  training  is  to  try  to 
build  by  beginning  at  the  third  floor  with  neither  plans 
nor  agencies  for  the  lower  ones. 

In  any  program  of  education  for  democracy  there  must 
be  such  a  recognition  of  the  fundamental  work  which  the 
family  has  to  do  with  character  in  its  beginnings  that 
we  shall  not  only  expect  certain  things  of  the  family  but 
we  shall  provide  the  family  with  the  means  of  accomplish- 
ing its  work  and  protect  it  in  the  prosecution  of  that 
work,     We  shajl  i^ot  hold  him  guiltless  whQ  interferes  in 


%. 


THE  SCHOOL  OF  DEM)mACY  im, 

any  way  with  the  freedom  and  powers  of  the  parents  to 
live  with  their  children  and  to  know  them,  to  guide  their 
minds  and  train  their  lives.  We  shall  not  look  with  com- 
placency on  a  system  that  provides  us  cheap  goods  or 
the  manufacturer  large  profits  by  labor  that  makes 
physical  parenthood  a  mockery  and  spiritual  parenthood 
an  impossibility.  Nor  shall  we  regard  with  complacency 
the  family  that  deserts  its  opportunities  and  drives  chil- 
dren either  on  the  streets  or  into  the  care  of  those  not 
trained  for  spiritual  education  while  parents  use  its  life 
as  an  instrument  of  their  pleasures.  In  both  cases  we 
shall  realize  that  the  crime  is  committed  against  us  all, 
that  in  such  cases  the  family  is  simply  passing  its  prob- 
lems on  to  the  future  and  society  is  permitting  the  devel- 
opment of  social  misfits,  aliens  and  despoilers. 

Any  true  program  of  education  of  all  the  people  for 
the  life  of  all  the  people  will  have  a  definite,  socially 
recognized  and  adequately  supported  place  for  the  family 
as  an  educational  agency.  That  task  will  be  just  as 
clearly  seen  as  the  task  of  the  schools.  Society  will  count 
on  the  family  with  exactness  for  the  spiritual  nurture,  the 
social  development  of  the  very  young.  And  it  will  also 
count  on  the  family  for  the  continuation  of  its  peculiar 
processes  of  intimate  personal  contacts,  of  the  life  of  the 
small  social  group,  through  the  years  of  youth.  It  will 
be  the  school  in  which  young  people  learn  first  of  all  and 
most  steadily  of  all,  through  immediate  experience,  the 
arts  of  social  living  and  the  motives  of  democratic  living. 

THE  FUNCTION  OF  THE  CHURCH 

The  church  mil  range  beside  the  family  in  the  pro- 
gram of  education.  It  is  really  a  larger  family,  the 
membership  of  which  is  determined  voluntarily.  It  is 
a  social  group  brought  together  by  spiritual  ideals  and 
organized  to  accomplish  spiritual  purposes.  Its  function 
is  that  of  realizing  an  ideal  spiritual  society,  a  democracy 


102  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

of  the  spirit.  It  accomplishes  its  purpose  by  bringing 
persons  together  in  a  common  program  which  seeks  tlie 
development  of  the  likeness  of  God,  the  realization  of 
<  a  spiritual  ideal  in  men  and  the  development  of  the 
society  of  God  in  the  world.  It  is  an  educational  agency 
because  it  deals  with  persons  for  the  purpose  of  devel- 
oping their  lives  and  with  society  for  the  purpose  of 
developing  its  life. 

Its  place  in  the  social  program  is  very  definite;  it  is 
the  means  by  which,  in  a  democracy,  we  afford  persons 
freedom  to  form  their  own  groups  for  religious  purposes. 
It  is  the  means  by  which,  under  civic  freedom,  it  is 
possible  for  society  to  gather  up  the  many  forms  of  spir- 
itual stimuli  which  religion  affords  and  to  apply  them  to 
the  whole  of  social  life.  It  is  the  socialization  of  the 
traditions  and  the  race  heritage  of  religion  under  social 
freedom.  The  measure  of  its  efficiency  is  the  degree  to 
which  the  stimuli  of  religion  carry  over  into  social  life,  the 
degree  to  which  the  faiths  of  the  churches  and  their  social 
life  make  better  and  more  efficient  members  of  society  and 
a  better,  more  spiritual  society. 

The  church  then  is  that  social  agency  which  has  freedom 
under  democracy  to  use  those  powers  which  the  state 
cannot  use  through  its  agencies ;  it  exists,  specifically,  to 
make  religion  count  for  life  and  society.  It  is  to  be 
held  responsible  in  a  democracy  for  the  use  of  this  power. 
Democracy  commits  to  the  churches  and  their  agencies 
that  part  of  the  program  which  has  to  do  with  the  explicit 
teaching  of  religion  and  with  the  direct  training  of 
religious  life.  It  has  a  place  in  the  program  that  is 
taken  by  no  other.  It  has  a  place  which  is  absolutely 
essential  to  any  complete  society.  Therefore  a  democ- 
racy, as  a  political  organization,  will  recognize  the  func- 
tion of  the  churches,  will  protect  them  in  their  proper 
spheres  and,  so  far  as  it  can  do  so  in  justice  to  all,  it 
will  encourage  their  work.     This  it  will  do  because  the 


THE  SCHOOL  OF  DEMOCRACY  103 

churches  are  the  special  agencies  for  the  spiritual  life 
and  this  life  is  the  fundamental  basis  of  the  power  of 
a  democracy.  The  church  then  has  the  function  of  spir- 
itual education  under  conditions  which  afford  entire  free- 
dom in  the  use  of  religious  ideals  and  teachings.  In  its 
various  forms  it  is  democracy  finding  free  association 
about  many  types  of  spiritual  ideals. 

THE    FUNCTION    OF    THE    PUBLIC    SCHOOLS 

The  public  schools  have  a  highly  important  part  in 
the  program  of  education  for  democracy.  They,  again, 
are  manifestations  of  democracy  at  work.  Their  pur- 
pose is  to  organize  the  powers  of  communities  and  of 
states  and  to  direct  the  cooperation  of  professional 
workers  so  that  the  young  may  be  properly  trained  in 
the  life  of  democracy.  This  function  we  must  keep  clearly 
in  mind,  abandoning  our  inadequate  concepts  of  the 
school  as  existing  to  equip  our  children  with  certain 
useful  tools  of  knowledge;  it  exists  because  democracy 
wills  its  existence  in  order  that  these  on-coming  members 
of  the  democracy  may  know  its  life,  its  ways,  its  ideals 
and  may  be  quickened  to  carry  forward  its  purposes. 

The  schools  as  social  agencies  must  be  judged  by  social 
products.  In  thinking  through  the  life  of  any  community 
we  have  a  right  to  look  to  the  schools  to  accomplish  cer- 
tain results  with  the  wills,  minds  and  social  purposes  and 
habits  of  the  young.  This  is  the  basis  on  which  all  the 
varied  activities  of  the  school  must  be  determined.  Con- 
sidering the  institution  functionally  we  can  no  longer 
determine  the  range  of  its  work  by  text-books  and 
curricula,  but  by  its  responsibilities  in  social  character. 
Such  considerations  justify  playgrounds  equally  with 
libraries  and  laboratories;  they  justify  social  enterprises 
and  recreations  equally  with  recitations;  they  justify 
social  usefulness  equally  with  study  programs.  The 
school  has  its  part  to  play  by  doing  all  that  can  be  done 


104  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

under   forms    of   social    organization    and   experience    to 
guide  the  young  into  the  life  of  democracy. 

The  functions  of  the  schools  in  a  democracy  are  based 
on  their  nature  as  institutions  rising  out  of  the  will  of 
the  people.  A  school  stands  in  a  community,  speaking 
through  its  brick  and  stone,  and  through  all  its  work,  in 
the  words  of  state  documents  in  the  United  States  "  We, 
the  people  of  ...  do  will  and  hereby  do  carry  out  our 
purpose  "  to  secure  to  to-morrow  an  intelligent,  trained 
democracy.  But  if  "  we  the  people  "  do  this  a  serious 
responsibility  lies  upon  us  all.  We  must  know  what  it 
is  we  plan  to  do  and  we  must  know  how  it  is  done.  Pop- 
ular education  means  popular  responsibility  for  educa- 
tion. The  recognition  of  the  function  of  the  school  in 
the  community  carries  with  it  the  duty  of  all  citizens 
to  understand,  through  careful,  painstaking  study  and 
intelligent,  patient  observation,  this  process  of  education 
for  which  they  are  responsible. 

COMMUNITY    AGENCIES 

Communities  organize  many  special  agencies  to  assume 
specific  functions:  the  public  library,  the  park  and  recre- 
ation boards,  special  institutes  and  associations  to  care 
for  special  groups  and  numerous  clubs  and  societies  to 
accomplish  particular  ends.  There  is  always  the  danger 
that  organizations  and  institutions  shall  multiply,  each 
arising  in  response  to  some  definite  and  real  need,  until 
their  lines  of  service  cross  continuously,  until  forms  of 
service  are  duplicated,  energies  ar6  wasted  and  com- 
petition becomes  the  order  of  the  day.  A  social  cross- 
section  of  some  communities  looks  much  like  an  ant-hill 
that  has  been  over-turned,  revealing  bewildering  activity 
without  compensating  results.  The  condition  is  so 
familiar  that  it  is  not  necessary  to  attempt  to  describe  it. 

The  problem  of  commwnity  organization  is  altogether 
too  large  for  satisfactory   study  here  but   there  is   one 


THE  SCHOOL  OF  DEMOCRACY  105 

aspect  which  may  be  considered  properly ;  it  is  one  which 
is  fundamental.  At  present  our  current  studies  in  com- 
munity organization  seem  to  emphasize  the  desirability  of 
adjusting  the  various  activities  into  a  coordinated  pro- 
gram. This  is  desirable,  but  it  surely  must  be  predicated 
on  deeper  considerations  than  harmonious  adjustments. 
The  most  perfectly  adapted  mechanism  would  be  of  little 
value  unless  it  was  designed  and  used  to  accomplish  some- 
thing. The  fundamental  consideration,  upon  which  all 
community  organization  must  proceed,  is  that  of  the  pur- 
pose of  the  community.  Adjustment  follows  common  con- 
viction of  purpose.  Purpose  determines  programs.  The 
community  is  a  mechanism;  it  has  a  purpose  which  lies 
beyond  itself.  It  exists  to  shelter,  nurture  and  train 
persons;  it  has  the  purposes  of  democracy;  it  is  the 
larger  association  of  persons  for  social  ends.  And  it  is 
much  more  than  a  mechanism;  it  is  an  organism;  its 
life  is  the  life  of  persons  in  a  society ;  so  that  all  programs 
must  take  into  consideration  its  vital  powers. 

The  first  step  in  community  organization  is  the  realiza- 
tion of  the  tremendous  power  of  this  social  mechanism 
to  produce  social  results,  its  influence  over  persons,  its 
constantly  exerted  power  to  determine  what  they  think 
and  feel  and  what  they  are.  It  is  making  persons,  not 
alone  by  its  intentional  educational  work  but  because 
these  persons  respond  to  its  life;  they  see  its  ideals 
realized  in  actualities ;  they  answer  to  the  community's 
impress  on  their  lives.  The  community  is  seen  as  a  real 
school  when  its  effects  on  character  are  understood. 

The  basis  of  all  community  organization  ought  to  be 
in  the  power  of  the  community  to  determine  the  character 
of  lives.  It  should  express  the  purpose  of  the  community 
to  determine  lives.  Much  as  we  may  boast  of  the  wealth 
and  the  industries  of  our  villages  and  cities  they  have  a 
potency  far  greater  than  all  their  factories;  it  is  the 
potency  over  the  lives  of  persQns,     They  have  a  purpose 


106  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

far  higher  than  financial  standing  or  statistical  glory,  it 
is  that  they  may  produce  the  best  kind  of  persons.  This 
power  and  this  purpose  will  furnish  the  test  for  every 
community  agency.  Your  community,  seen  as  a  school, 
will  accept  or  reject  activities  as  they  make  for  or  against 
life.  It  will  make  that  test  final  and  absolute.  No  matter 
what  other  inducements  this  or  that  industry  or  amuse- 
ment may  offer,  it  has  no  right  in  community  life  if  it 
does  not  minister  to  its  program  as  a  school  of  living. 
In  like  manner,  this  power  and  this  purpose  will  determine 
the  relationship  of  the  various  activities.  It  will  furnish 
the  point  of  their  cooperation.  The  school  will  co- 
operate with  the  family  not  to  lessen  family  duties  but 
for  the  sake  of  richer,  stronger  lives.  The  school  will 
cooperate  with  the  churches,  not  to  save  the  churches  their 
intellectual  labor,  but  to  help  them  in  growing  finer 
manhood  and  womanhood.  There  will  be  cooperation 
between  school  and  factory,  not  that  the  factory  may 
have  more  intelligent  human  machines,  but  that  all  life 
may  be  enriched  and  especially  the  life  of  the  worker  and 
the  community. 

The  basis  of  commumty  organization  lies  in  the  concept 
of  the  whole  commwnity  as  a  school  of  democracy.  And 
the  basis  of  community  endeavor  of  every  kind  lies  here.^ 
This  is  the  test  to  which  we  may  bring  all  our  projects 
for  community  betterment.  It  is  likewise  the  test  to 
which  we  may  bring  all  our  plans  for  social  amelioration ; 
do  they  contribute  to  the  greater  efficiency  of  the  social 
order  in  developing  itself,  in  developing  stronger,  happier 
men  and  women  f^ 

1  This  is  not  in  conflict  with  the  plans  developed  by  B.  S. 
Winchester  ("  Religious  Education  and  Democracy,"  Pilgrim  Press, 
1917)  and  W.  S.  Athearn,  ("  Religious  Education  and  American 
Democracy,"  Abingdon  Press,  1917).  Both  these  authors  describe 
methods  by  which  the  work  of  general  education  may  be  supple- 
mented, and  complemented,  by  community  cooperation  in  religious 
instruction.  They  present  in  detail  one  feature  in  the  program  of 
a  community, 


THE  SCHOOL  OF  DEMOCRACY  107 

Education  for  democracy,  then,  is  not  a  special  exer- 
cise, set  into  some  apportioned  periods  of  time,  as  the 
school  and  college  days,  the  hours  of  church  and  church 
school.  It  is  that  which  is  going  on  all  the  time  in  our 
families,  in  all  the  life  of  the  community.  Whether  we 
will  to  have  it  so  or  not  the  total  social  life  is  a  school 
and  is  determining,  by  its  teaching  power,  the  kind  of 
society  we  will  have  to-morrow.  We  cannot  escape  this ; 
we  cannot  offset  this  power  of  life  to  educate  by  any 
special  provisions  we  may  make.  It  is  always  there  and 
inevitable.  Surely  then  it  is  the  part  of  wisdom  to  direct 
this  power.  If  life  is  always  educating;  if  it  is  such  a 
school  as  we  have  suggested,  should  we  not  begin  to  regard 
it  as  a  school,  to  determine  its  character  and  its  effects.?* 
Is  it  not  high  time  to  look  out  beyond  the  public  schools 
and  the  church  schools  into  the  real  schools,  to  consider, 
with  care,  how  democracy  is  being  determined  on  the 
streets,  in  the  vacant  lots,  in  the  movies  and  the  play- 
grounds, in  the  fruit-and-soda  stores,  wherever  lives  are 
together.^  Is  it  not  simple  common  sense,  if  we  organize 
the  regular  schools  with  a  view  to  their  purpose,  to 
organize  and  direct  this  larger  and  constant  school  of 
life  also  with  a  view  to  its  purpose  to  develop  a  finer 
democracy  ? 


CHAPTER  IX 

BEGINNING    AT    HOME 

The  family  is  the  first  and  the  most  effective  school  of 
democracy. 

Democracy  as  an  experience  is  an  educational  process. 
It  is,  for  every  citizen,  a  schooling  in  social  control.  It 
involves  the  participation  of  all  persons  in  self-govern- 
ment, not  alone  because  all  naturally  desire  to  have  a 
voice  in  their  own  affairs,  but  because  only  through  such 
participation  can  they  learn  the  social  life,  only  through 
the  experience  of  governing  can  they  become  fit  to  govern. 
Democracy  rests,  as  a  method,  not  so  much  on  the  rights 
of  persons  as  on  their  social  and  educational  needs.  As 
the  actual  experience  of  living  is  the  real  schooling  for 
life  so  this  laboratory  of  civic  living  is  essential  to  citizen- 
ship. Exercise  through  social  experience  is  essential  to 
the  development  of  man's  social  powers;  he  learns  the 
life  of  society  through  sharing  all  its  experiences  including 
the  experience  of  self -direction.^ 

Democracy  J  as  an  experience,  must  begin  early  in  life. 
If  it  is  true  that  persons  learn  the  life  of  democracy  only 
through  the  democratic  experience  of  social  self-direction 
then  it  is  evident  that  this  experience  must  come  as 
early  as  possible  in  life.  The  exercise  of  the  suffrage 
may  be  deferred  until  maturity,  but  the  experience  of 
democracy  must  be  realized   as   soon   as   any  experience 

1  The  discussion  of  woman  suffrage  would  have  been  settled  long 
ago  had  it  moved  from  the  plane  of  personal  rights  to  that  of 
social  needs.  Since  all  in  a  democracy  need  the  full  experience  of 
democracy  it  follows  that  women  need,  for  the  sake  of  the  democ- 
racy, a  full  share  in  its  life.  The  state  cannot  afford  to  have  part 
of  its  life  cut  off  from  its  own  educational  experience. 

108 


BEGINNING  AT  HOME  109 

can  be  known.  The  importance  of  early  beginnings  will 
be  clear  when  we  remember  that  democracy  is  not  a  matter 
of  intellectual  concepts  or  of  political  opinions;  it  is  a 
form  of  life,  a  way  of  social  living.  It  is  a  continuous 
'social  life.  Its  habits  cannot  be  too  early  acquired. 
Democratic  citizens  are  not  created  by  suffrage  legisla- 
tion; they  grow  through  social  training.  If  it  is  true 
that  the  foundations  of  society  are  laid  in  childhood  then 
here  we  must  begin  to  build  our  democratic  society. 

Democracy  begins  at  home.  The  family  is  the  child^s 
first  educational  group;  no  other  has  equal  power.  An 
autocratic  family  makes  a  poor  school  for  democratic 
society.  Yet  nearly  all  families  are  either  autocracies 
or  dual  monarchies.  We  still  hold  to  the  theory  of  the 
divine  right  of  paternal  kings  to  absolute  rule.  True, 
in  American  homes,  the  rule  is  largely  a  fiction.  As  a 
working  man  said  recently :  "  We  people  of  to-day  catch 
it  both  ways ;  when  we  were  young  we  were  compelled  to 
respect  our  parents ;  now  we  are  grown  we  are  compelled 
to  respect  our  children."  The  seeming  conflict  and 
breakdown  of  the  old  authority  in  American  homes  is  due, 
in  part,  to  our  attempt  to  maintain  autocracy  there 
while  indorsing  democracy  outside.  But  the  strife  of 
wills,  the  asserted  and  ignored  authority  of  parents,  works 
only  to  develop  individualists.  The  young  often  experi- 
ence a  society  in  which  they  either  live  in  subjection  or  in 
perpetual  conflict  of  wills,  devoid  of  all  attempts  to  work 
out  a  common  goodwill.  They  look  out  and  forward  to 
another  and  different  society  in  which  they  will  play  their 
full  and  free  parts.  There  is  no  relationship  in  experi- 
ence between  the  child's  first  social  group  of  the  family 
and  his  larger  group  of  the  state. 

To  many  it  will  seem  a  revolutionary  doctrine  to  in- 
sist that  the  family  must  be  organized  as  a  democratic 
society.  So  men  once  thought  about  the  state.  But  the 
modern  free  state  is  founded,  not  on  some  newly  discov- 


110  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

!  ered  theory  of  government,  but  on  the  very  nature  of 
inan,  on  his  inalienable  rights  and  his  social  needs.  So 
with  the  family.  Its  very  nature  calls  for  a  democratic 
form  of  life.  The  state  is  democratic  because  civic  forms 
exist  for  the  sake  of  social  ends,  for  persons.  The  fam- 
ily must  be  democratic  because  it  exists,  even  more  simply 
and  evidently,  for  the  sake  of  persons ;  it  is  the  one  social 
group  which  has  this  sole  and  dominating  reason  for  exist- 
ence. It  is  a  little  society  organized  in  order  that  per- 
sons may  be  bom  into  the  world  under  conditions  favor- 
able to  their  nurture  and  that  they  may  develop  as  per- 
sons. Its  raison  d'etre  lies  in  social  persons.  It  is  or- 
ganized for  people.  Its  mechanisms  for  feeding  and  shel- 
ter are  subsidiary  and  only  contributory  to  its  larger 
purposes;  they  could  be  conducted  much  more  efficiently 
in  larger  groups.  The  apparently  wasteful  methods  of 
the  small  household  are  justified  in  the  light  of  the  social- 
educational  advantages  of  the  small  group  for  the  young. 
Here  in  this  small  group,  so  closely  related,  so  mutually 
dependent,  the  art  of  life  is  learned.  Social  considera- 
tions dominate  all  its  methods.  Because  it  exists  for 
the  growth  of  lives  the  weakest  and  youngest  have  the 
largest  claim  on  it.  Those  who  are  strong  here  serve  the 
weak.  The  baby  is  the  center  of  the  home  because  de- 
mocracy always  sets  the  child  in  the  midst. 

But  the  practical  question  remains,  how  can  the  home 
life  be  so  organized  that  children  find  in  it  a  real  expe- 
rience in  democracy.?  How  can  the  family  provide  train- 
ing in  self-government  and  social  direction?  Many  ask. 
Does  not  the  practice  of  democracy  involve  the  abandon- 
ment of  parental  authority  and,  therefore,  of  parental 
responsibility  ?  No ;  on  the  contrary  it  increases  both ; 
it  increases  responsibility  by  making  it  the  duty  of  the 
parent  not  so  much  to  see  that  the  child  does  as  it  is  told 
but  to  aid  the  child  in  willing  that  which  is  good  for  all ; 
it  increases  authority  by  adding  to  the  will  of  the  parent 


BEGINNING  AT  HOME  111 

the  will  of  the  child.  It  makes  parents  educators  of  wills 
instead  of  dictators  of  actions.  Authority  is  increased 
as  it  passes  from  autocracy,  which  has  authority  only  as 
long-  as  the  governed  are  too  weak  to  resist,  to  a  common 
social  good  will. 

METHODS    OF    FAMILY    TRAINING 

What,  then,  are  the  methods  ?  By  affording  each  mem- 
ber a  steadily  developing  experience  of  participation  in 
all  the  joys  and  duties,  the  service  and  responsibilities  of 
the  home;  by  ceasing  to  think  of  the  family  as  a  benev- 
olent autocracy  on  one  side  with  the  children  as  passive 
beneficiaries  on  the  other;  by  beginning  to  think  of  and 
steadily  cultivating  the  habit  of  regarding  the  home  as 
the  common  possession  of  all,  of  its  life  as  a  common  life 
in  which  all  have  a  share  and  toward  which  all  have  serv- 
ice to  render. 

Democratic  parents  train  democratic  children  by  mak- 
ing possible  the  democratic  family.  The  first  thing 
needed  is  that  parents  shall  "  rep^ent,"  change  their  minds. 
Perhaps,  even  before  that,  we  need  repentance  on  the  part 
of  society,  a  change  of  social  mind  so  that  all  shall  think 
of  marriage  and  home-making  in  democratic  terms,  in  the 
light  of  the  needs  of  society.  We  might  be  frank  enough 
to  recognize  that  the  foundations  of  home-making,  the 
desire  for  children,  are  at  one  with  the  central  motive  of 
democracy,  the  passion  for  lives.  Then  we  might  con- 
sider mating  in  terms  of  possible  lives.  A  democracy 
cannot  afford  that  the  means  by  which  new  lives  are 
given  to  it  should  be  shrouded  in  social  superstition  or 
its  processes  of  increase  regarded  as  accidents,  or  ca- 
tastrophes. We  shall  recognize  that  families  are 
founded  for  social  ends,  in  order  that  children  may  be 
born  and  trained.  Accordingly  we  shall  prepare  those 
who  are  to  give  children  to  society;  we  shall  not  only 
train  them  to  competency  in  physical  parenthood  but  also 


lis  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

to  efficiency  in  spiritual,  in  guiding  minds,  developing 
spirits  and  educating  persons.  The  true  spirit  of  de- 
mocracy grows  in  parents  as  they  realize  these  vital  re- 
sponsibilities to  the  whole  of  society,  as  they  think  of 
their  home  life  in  the  light  of  the  claims  of  the  world  of 
which  it  is  a  part. 

The  democratic  home  will  be  guided  by  .Ibc-rights  of,^ 
the^Mld.  '  It  will  be  organized  in  the  light  of  his  right  to 
a  full  share  in  social  living  through  the  use  and  posses- 
sion of  its  resources;  in  the  light  of  his  right  to  a  share 
in  its  life  of  service,  of  common  work  and  fellowship. 
Think  out  the  home  life  as  we  think  out  our  civic  life 
when  we  say,  "  The  school  belongs,  not  to  the  school 
board,  but  to  us  all."  Just  as  children  have  learned  to 
say,  "  We  must  not  destroy  the  trees  in  the  parks  nor 
the  lamps  on  the  street  because  they  belong  to  us  all," 
so  in  the  home  they  learn  to  think  of  a  common  sharing 
of  all  possessions  and  to  develop  both  a  sense  of  social 
rights  and  of  social  responsibilities.  The  point  may  seem, 
at  first,  an  insignificant  one,  that  children  should  feel 
that  the  possessions  in  the  home  belong  to  them.  But 
the  principle  is  fundamental;  any  ideal  identity  of  inter- 
ests rests  on  real  interests;  we  are  never  a  part  of  the 
state  until  we  realize  that  the  concrete  property  of  the 
state  is  ours.  A  child  passes  to  a  new  attitude  when  he 
comes  to  the  sense  of  the  plural  possessive.  This  is  the 
attitude  he  must  take  toward  the  state;  he  acquires  it  as 
a  natural  attitude  in  the  home  when  the  sense  of  common 
possession  is  real,  practical  and  habitual.^ 

The  problems  of  discipline  give  way  before  the  practice 
of  deTnocracy  m  the  family.  This  is  not  because  de- 
mocracy is  some  happy  cure-all  for  the  waywardness  of 
children  and   the   arbitrariness   of   parents,   but   because 

1  On  the  development  of  the  communal  spirit  in  the  home  see  Chap- 
ter VIII  of  "  Religious  Education  in  the  Family,"  Henry  F.  Cope, 
University  of  Chicago  Press,  1916, 


BEGINNING  AT  HOME  113 

democracy  is  a  process  of  substituting  a  common  purpose 
for  conflicting  wills.  The  problems  of  family  discipline 
arise  from  conflicting  wills.  It  is  true  that  the  will  of 
one  may  be  right  and  that  of  the  other  wrong,  but  the 
purpose  of  the  home  is  not  achieved  by  forcing  the  wrong 
will  to  yield  to  the  right.  The  vanquished  does  not 
thereby  learn  to  will  the  right.  On  the  contrary,  a  van- 
quished one  is  not  vanquished  in  will ;  he  is  commonly  only 
strengthened  to  resist.  Even  though,  at  last,  all  resist- 
ance is  worn  down,  no  gain  has  been  made;  on  the  con- 
trary a  serious  loss  has  occurred;  he  has  lost  the  power 
of  resistance.  Where  the  will  is  "  broken  "  through  dis- 
ciplinary conflicts  in  the  family,  the  child  is  robbed  of 
one  of  the  powers  he  will  seriously  need  in  life.  And  yet, 
the  parent's  problem  seems  to  be  this :  "  Shall  I  give  up 
to  the  child  .'^  "  However,  is  it  true  that  the  only  alterna- 
tives are  either  the  child's  giving  up  or  the  parent's  yield- 
ing? 

Democracy  has  a  better  way.  It  seeks  to  discover  a 
common  purpose  which  both  can  will ;  it  seeks  to  develop, 
in  all  situations,  a  common  will.  This  is  not  the  same  as 
a  compromise;  it  does  not  mean  the  parent  consenting 
to  this  on  condition  that  the  child  agrees  to  that.  It  is 
rather  the  gradual  development  of  a  common  social  pur- 
pose which  being  seen  and  followed  by  all  the  members  of 
the  family  group  secures  harmony  and  unity  of  action. 
Democratic  training  means  more  than  securing  a  modules 
operandi  between  parents  and  children ;  it  means  patiently 
developing  ideals,  purposes,  plans,  methods  and,  most 
potent  of  all,  compelling  enterprises  which  are  accepted 
by  all  members  of  the  group.  Thinking  things  over  to- 
gether, discussing  them  and  doing  them  together,  a  com- 
mon will  is  developed.  Through  experience  in  common 
enterprises  a  social  will  is  formed;  unity  of  action  is  se- 
cured, with  freedom  of  wills. 

A  common  social  wUl  is  secured  only  wnder  freedom. 


114  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

Nothing  can  be  imposed  on  the  will.  Democracy  in  af- 
fairs rests  on  democracy  of  the  spirit.  If  the  family  is 
to  train  for  democracy  it  must  give  every  member  free- 
dom to  exercise  his  powers  of  judgment,  choice  and  will. 
This  can  take  place  only  through  real  participation  in 
family  government  and  management.  To  be  concrete: 
we  will  suppose  that  the  B —  family,  living  in  the  city,  are 
considering  moving  to  another  house  or  apartment.  The 
selection  of  a  future  home  could  be  made  by  the  parents 
alone;  but,  in  the  democratic  family,  no  decision  is  made 
until  all  the  members  have  considered  the  matter,  until, 
as  in  a  council,  all  have  thoroughly  discussed  the  situa- 
tion. Commonly  the  reasons  for  removal,  the  advan- 
tages of  different  situations,  of  streets  and  types  of 
homes,  of  costs  and  upkeep,  are  all  regarded  as  details  to 
be  settled  by  the  omniscient  heads  of  the  household;  but 
they  are  all  vital  to  the  interests  of  every  otie;  they  af- 
fect the  well-being  of  each  one.  And  they  affect  the  daily 
conduct  of  each.  Thorough  discussion  has  several  direct 
effects:  it  gives  a  sen^e  of  participation  which  quickens 
responsibility;  it  commits  each  one  to  the  family  enter- 
prise; it  quickens  thought  on  the  problems  of  family  life; 
it  presents  unconsciously  and  indirectly  aspects  of  many 
moral  problems  and  ideals.  When  a  decision  is  reached 
it  is  the  decision  of  all,  it  expresses  the  will  of  all.  The 
consciousness  of  unity,  of  common  purpose,  responsibil- 
ity and  action  is  strengthened  and  tends  to  carry  over 
into  all  the  current  of  family  life.  This  one  incident  has 
furnished  an  experience  in  democratic  living. 

Does  this  matter  seem  trivial?  It  is  no  trifle  for  chil- 
dren to  think  habitually  of  family  life  as  a  social  expe- 
rience in  which  they  always  have  a  full  share.  It  is  no 
trifle  when  they  pass  from  the  home  passively  to  regarding 
it  actively.  It  is  no  trifle  when  this  kind  of  experience 
goes  on,  day  after  day,  so  that  all  the  children  are  un- 
consciously forming  habits  of  social  cooperation. 


BEGINNING  AT  HOME  115 

But  supposing,  in  the  instance  just  cited,  that  no  com- 
mon unanimous  decision  is  possible?  Everything  then 
on  the  practical  side  depends  on  the  degree  to  which  the 
members  have  already  practiced  this  method  of  democ- 
racy. In  beginning,  it  is  best  to  learn  through  lesser 
experiences,  through  the  everyday  life.  But  a  disagree- 
ment calls  for  the  exercise  of  the  larger  social  will,  the 
will  that  chooses  to  ignore  my  own  interests  for  the  sake 
of  the  interests  of  others  and  especially  for  the  interests 
of  the  larger  number.  It  is  an  opportunity  to  practice 
the  principle  on  which  our  social  life  proceeds,  that  even 
the  clear  interests  of  the  few  must  often  give  way  to  the 
welfare  of  the  many,  that  individual  rights  cease  to  be 
rights  when  they  conflict  with  social  rights.  Such  a  les- 
son is  learned  in  the  laboratory  of  life,  but  children  may 
receive  it  through  instruction, —  care  should  be  taken  to 
make  the  welfare  of  all  so  clear  to  them  that  they  will 
cheerfully  sacrifice  individual  preferences,  and  the  realiza- 
tion of  the  joy  of  the  social  will  then  becomes  their  own 
through  experience. 

LABORATORY    EXPERIENCE 

The  family,  as  a  school  of  democracy,  applies  the  edu- 
cational principle  that  learning  comes  by  doing.  It  main- 
tains constant  experience  in  social  action  and  thus  it  is 
a  training  school  in  the  habits  of  social  living.  It  is 
either  making  social  citizens  or  selfish  individuals.  It 
is  doing  this,  not  by  the  adoption  of  codes  of  action,  nor 
by  even  the  wise  counsels  of  parents,  but  by  the  direction 
of  activity.  It  forms  habits  by  guiding  repeated  actions, 
strengthening  them  with  desirable  associations  and  illum- 
ining them  with  ideals.  It  makes  social  citizens  by  guid- 
ing its  members  into  social  activity  within  its  own  circle. 
All  the  relationships  of  the  family  are  socially  interpreted. 
Its  duties  are  not  tasks  for  the  "  head,"  nor  are  they 
"  chores  "  in  the  day's  routine ;  they  are  simply  a  part 


116  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

of  the  common  life,  the  part  which  each  one  plays  in  the 
life  of  all.  They  are  not  tasks  at  all;  they  are  as  much 
a  part  of  life  as  breathing  or  eating. 

The  child  needs  to  begin  very  early  to  learn  the  life 
of  a  democracy,  the  life  of  constant  social  cooperation. 
In  few  ways  could  we  be  more  cruel  than  we  are  when- 
ever we  attempt  to  train  a  child  for  a  life  free  from  labor. 
The  "  primeval  curse  "  was  not  that  of  work,  but  that 
of  sweating  for  mere  bread.  Work  is  man's  high  priv- 
ilege ;  it  is  the  point  at  which  he  effectively  becomes  a  part 
of  the  world.  Children  need  real  work  in  the  family. 
They  are  being  trained  in  social  pauperism  where  seiVants 
do  everything.  It  is  true  that  modem  conditions  have 
deprived  the  home  of  many  forms  of  activity ;  but  we  only 
suppose  that  they  have  taken  all  those  forms  because  we 
lack  imagination  to  see  the  new  ones  that  arise  and  that 
are  constantly  developing  and  changing  as  economic  con- 
ditions change.  A  boy  may  not  be  able  to  bring  the  wood 
and  water  into  the  modern  home,  but  he  can  run  the 
vacuum  cleaner  and  he  will  not  be  degraded  by  washing 
dishes,  or  he  can  help  in  the  cooking.  To  his  society 
these  tasks  are  just  as  essential — and  therefore  just  as 
honorable,  despite  our  prejudices  —  as  desk  work  or  sell- 
ing goods  in  the  larger  world.  Those  who  would  be 
ashamed  to  have  their  children  work  at  home  may  be  yet 
more  ashamed  to  find  they  have  trained  those  who  will 
not  work,  as  social  cooperators,  in  the  larger  human  fam- 

It  may  seem  to  many  that  dishwashing  has  very  little 
to  do  with  democracy,  that  such  trivial  affairs  weigh  noth- 
ing as  compared  with  the  high  task  of  inspiring  the  young 
with  the  splendid  ideals  of  our  country,  with  love  for  the 
flag  and  devotion  to  national  destiny.  Such  judgments 
left  us,  in  an  hour  of  great  national  need,  with  an  over^ 
stock  of  rhetorical  patriots  and  a  shortage  of  effective 
servants.     But  the  hour  pf  national  need  also  brought 


BEGINNING  AT  HOME  117 

out  the  splendid  spectacle  of  the  "  dollar-a-year  "  men, 
the  leaders  of  great  commercial  and  industrial  enterprises, 
who  willingly  gave  their  time,  working  long  hours,  under 
difficult  conditions,  and  without  compensation,  for  the 
national  service.  They  were  men  to  whom  work  was  the 
natural  thing;  they  were  habitually  active  and  mentally 
cooperative.  They  are  not  produced  in  a  single  hour  of 
opportunity.  They  come  out  of  a  long  training  in  the 
habits  of  active  contribution  to  life.  Such  habits  depend 
for  their  strength  very  largely  on  early  beginnings ;  they 
are  acquired,  not  by  waiting  to  do  some  splendid,  ideal 
things  but  by  doing  everything  that  one  can  do  on  every 
possible  occasion.  They  begin  with  the  trifles  of  every- 
day service. 

Education  for  democracy  is  a  widening  social  expe- 
rience. It  is  possible  to  have  a  home  in  which  every  mem- 
ber actively  shares,  making  a  contribution  of  service,  and 
yet  no  education  for  democracy  takes  place.  The  school 
of  democracy  must  take  a  social  attitude  to  all  life.  It 
is  not  only  a  little  democracy  within  itself;  it  is  part  of  , 
a  larger  society.  The  family  can  easily  become  a  selfish 
institution.  It  can  develop  unsocial  attitudes  in  chil- 
dren by  failing  to  take,  as  a  society,  an  attitude  of  com- 
mon living  and  service  toward  its  community,  toward 
other  homes  and  the  city  and  state.  The  life  of  democ- 
racy is  not  alone  that  of  individuals  who  cooperate  with 
and  contribute  toward  other  lives ;  it  is  rather  the  life  of 
groups  which  work,  as  groups,  for  the  social  whole.  The 
family  trains  in  the  group  life,  but  it  must  also  train 
in  the  life  of  the  group  for  the  whole.  It  must  be  con- 
ceived as  a  part  of  society  having  a  common  life  with  all 
the  rest,  under  the  obligations  of  service  and  inheriting 
the  joys  of  self-giving. 

The  democratic  family  makes  the  democratic  citizen. 
Its  attitude,  as  an  entire  group,  expresses  its  social  con- 
sciousness and  trains  in  habits  of  democratic  relationships 


118  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

to  society  as  a  whole.  There  are  families  which  are 
ethically  and  socially  marooned  by  their  own  selfish  spirit. 
They  live  only  to  themselves.  A  home  is  separated  in 
order  that  it  may  be  socially  integrated.  It  is  not  a  band 
of  persons  associated  to  secure  advantages  over  all  other 
bands.  It  is  a  social  group  which  so  fully  learns  social 
living  that  it  looks  out  on  all  its  community  as  a  field 
of  opportunity.  This  involves  the  difficult  problem  of 
developing  a  sense  of  universal  brotherhood  through  fam- 
ily living. 

To  save  itself  democracy  mtist  save  the  faimly.  But 
what  of  inefficient  families,  without  moral  consciousness.?^ 
It  is  suggested  that  we  will  meet  this  difficulty  by  the 
changes  that  are  now  taking  place  in  the  narrowing  of 
the  area  of  family  life,  and  the  tendency  to  transfer  its 
functions  to  other  institutions.  Perhaps  something  may 
be  accomplished  in  this  direction  when  we  have  invented 
a  process  to  be  substituted  for  parenthood.  Wlien  chil- 
dren can  be  born  without  mothers  and  fathers  we  may 
get  along  without  families.  The  psychological  parent- 
hood that  broods  over  the  child  during  all  its  years  of 
growth  up  to  manhood  is  as  real  a  fact  as  the  physiolog- 
ical parenthood  that  brings  him  into  life.  We  have  to 
remember,  what  is  more  important,  that,  with  all  its  short- 
comings, psychological  parenthood  is  still  the  most  potent 
force  within  our  knowledge  for  the  purposes  of  develop- 
ing character.  No  mechanizations  of  education  can  take 
the  place  of  people.  A  phonograph  repeating  French 
phrases  may  be  just  the  thing  to  teach  the  language  to 
a  bank  clerk,  but  a  phonograph  can  never  teach  life  to 
any  one.  Moral  training  is  not  a  matter  of  reciting  les- 
sons, but  of  learning  what  life  means  and  then  feeling, 
willing,  and  doing  aright  toward  it..  That  is  a  lesson  that 
needs  all  possible  reenforcements  in  affections,  ideals  and 
examples. 


BEGINNING  AT  HOME  119 

THE    FAMILY    AS    A    SOCIAL    NECESSITY 

We  too  readily  assume  that  the  family  is  either  an  eco- 
nomic accident  or  a  social  institution  founded  on  physio- 
logical conditions;  it  is  vastly  more,  it  is  a  social  insti- 
tution evolved  out  of  the  developing  necessities  of  human 
nature.  The  breeding  of  babies  does  not  absolutely  neces- 
sitate a  family,  but  the  breeding  of  human  creatures  does, 
for  that  is  a  process  of  slow  and  long  continued  growth. 
Men  and  women  are  not  bom  full-grown  morally;  they 
have  to  acquire  the  art  of  living  in  this  world.  We  can 
easily  establish  institutions  for  feeding,  clothing,  and 
teaching  infants,  but  we  cannot  find  a  substitute  for  the 
family  group  which  will  do  its  work  of  fitting  people  to 
live  in  the  world  in  social  relations.  The  family  is  a  so- 
cial necessity  in  democracy  because  it  is  that  school 
which  the  nature  of  man  has  developed  as  necessary  for 
his  training  for  social  living. 

Granted  the  necessity  of  the  experience  found  in  family 
life,  it  is  evident  that  we  do  not  solve  the  problem  of  in- 
efficient families  by  wiping  them  out  and  substituting  an 
institution.  It  becomes  the  responsibility  of  society  to 
see  that  we  substitute  good  families  for  bad  ones.  And 
this  is  one  of  the  first  social  duties  of  a  democracy.  It 
will  first  make  fully  efficient  that  which  first  deals  with 
lives  and  deals  with  them  most  effectively. 

Now  all  this  is  so  elementary  as  hardly  to  seem  worth 
the  saying.  But  the  fact  is  that,  elementary  as  it  is,  we 
have  gone  no  further  than  to  talk  about  it ;  we  have  failed 
to  act  on  the  simple  concept  of  family  life  as  the  essen- 
tial and  altogether  fundamental  element  in  the  moral 
training  of  a  people.  We  will  spend  without  stint  for 
schools  but  the  State  is  unwilling  to  spend  for  improving 
family  life ;  that  is  to  say,  we  are  willing  to  take  all  sorts 
of  pains  to  build  moral  citizenship,  beginning  when  the 


120  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

foundations  have  already  been  laid,  but  we  are  unwilling 
to  spend  any  thought  or  money  on  these  foundations. 

Democracy  must  protect  the  family.  The  first  step 
necessary,  in  order  that  the  family  may  meet  the  present 
moral  crisis,  is  to  give  it  a  chance  to  do  its  work.  Such 
industrial  and  economic  adjustments  must  be  made  as 
will  give  fathers  and  mothers  a  chance  to  have  healthy 
children  and  a  chance  to  influence  them  healthfully  in  their 
moral  development.  No  matter  what  the  industrial  order 
may  seem  to  demand  of  the  father  no  State  can  aff*ord 
to  have  children  growing  up  who  have  been  robbed  of 
the  sight  of  his  face  and  his  friendship.  The  rights  of 
the  child  and  the  rights  of  the  State  of  to-morrow  de- 
mand that  we  shall  not  rob  either  of  the  value  of  hours 
of  leisure  in  the  family.  To  build  fortunes  by  grinding 
the  face  of  the  poor  is  to  steal  from  the  citizenship  of  to- 
morrow for  the  lust  of  to-day.  The  hovel  in  which  the 
family  is  forced  to  live  to-day  simply  means  that  we  put 
that  family  to  the  school  of  hovel  living,  taking  lessons 
in  building  cities  of  hovels  for  us  all  to  live  in  to-morrow. 

We  build  our  cities  so  that  there  is  no  real  family  life. 
We  mourn  over  this  as  a  sentimental  loss  but  a  practical 
necessity.  So  short-sighted  are  we  that  we  fail  to  see 
that  it  is  not  the  sentiment  of  the  past  we  are  losing,  but 
the  citizenship  of  the  future  we  are  dwarfing  and  distort- 
ing. The  tenement  not  only  represents  the  loss  of  the 
ideals  of  the  "  Cotter's  Saturday  Night  " ;  it  represents 
economic  pressure  throttling  human  spirits.  Wherever 
economic  considerations  alone  dictate  conditions  they  rob 
the  man  of  to-morrow  of  the  one  school  that  can  make  a 
real  man  of  him,  the  one  that  can  surely  prevent  his  be- 
ing a  social  burden  or  menace. 

Whatever  robs  the  child  of  his  rights  to-day  robs  so- 
ciety of  its  portion  to-morrow.  We  cannot  steal  from 
the  child  of  to-day  without  despoiling  ourselves  in  yastly 
greater  measure  in  the  future. 


BEGINNING  AT  HOME  121 

Democracy  must  tram  home-makers.  The  second  step 
necessary  is  to  take  this  school  of  moral  living  so  seri- 
ously that  we  will  train  its  teachers  for  their  highest  task. 
We  have  normal  colleges  to  train  teachers  in  the  meth- 
ods of  the  knowledge  that  children  must  acquire  in  schools ; 
we  insist  that  all  teachers  shall  establish  their  fitness. 
But  we  make  no  conditions  of  efficiency  for  the  effective 
teachers  of  morality.  We  assume  that  the  high  office  of 
parenthood  is  acquired  by  accident,  that  while  one  must 
take  a  course  in  domestic  science  before  cooking  an  ^gg^ 
any  one  can  teach  life  to  a  child.  The  State  would  have 
a  perfect  right  to  demand  before  issuing  a  marriage  li- 
cense that  parents  prove  both  their  physiological  fitness 
and  their  ability  to  train  children. 

At  any  rate,  we  may  set  many  capable  agencies  at  work 
preparing  parents.  If  the  church  would  teach  its  people 
directly,  practically,  how  to  make  their  homes  better,  it 
must  do  more  than  give  us  sermons  about  a  "  home  over 
there.'*  We  need  homes  over  here  just  now;  the  rest  will 
take  care  of  itself.  We  need  classes  to  turn  from  dis- 
cussing the  genealogies  of  the  Old  Testament  to  a  study 
of  family  life  here.^  We  need  to  develop  the  efficiency 
of  our  public  schools  and  colleges  in  this  direction.  Why 
teach  young  people  everything  in  the  world  except  the 
one  thing  that  is  greatest  and  most  important  of  all 
in  the  world  to  them  ?  We  need  an  educated  public  opin- 
ion that  will  see  how  fundamental  to  all  true  democracy 
is  the  right  social  experience  in  the  family.  Then  we 
might  hope  that,  for  its  own  sake,  the  state  would  be 
willing  to  spend  at  least  as  much  in  aiding  the  family 
to  efficiency  and  competency  as  it  now  spends  in  improv- 
ing farms  and  orchards. 

Because  the  family,  through  its  normal  experiences  of 
democracy,  is  the  earliest  and  most  influential  agency  in 

iSee  the  author's  discussion  of  this  subject  in  "Religious  Educa- 
tion in  the  Church,"  Ch.  XVIII,  Scribners,  1917. 


122  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

training  democrats,  society  must  begin  here  its  work  of 
social  organization;  it  must  first  develop  efficiencies  for 
its  purposes.  It  must  give  new  thought  and  make  wiser 
provision  for  the  life  of  the  family.  Until  the  home  be- 
comes in  the  mind  of  the  educator  and  in  the  public  vi- 
sion more  important  than  the  school  or  the  college  social 
reconstruction  works  under  a  perpetual  handicap.  They 
work  wisely  who  begin  at  beginnings.^ 

1  The  Religious  Education  Association,  Chicapco,  111.,  publishes, 
free,  a  very  useful  short  bibliography  on  "  Religious  Nurture  in 
the  Home,"  prepared  by  Mary  E.  Moxcey,  and  including  the  more 
important  titles  dealing  with  the  general  problems  suggested  in 
this  chapter. 


CHAPTER  X 

DEMOCEATIC    TEAINING    THROUGH    THE    CHUKCH 

The  modern  church  is  both  the  product  and  the  prophet 
of  democracy.  Ideally  a  church  is  a  free  social  organ- 
ization of  persons  associated  for  the  purpose  of  realizing 
in  men  the  divine  ideal  and  in  society  the  kingdom  of  God. 
It  seeks  to  lead  men  into  godliness  in  a  god-willed  society. 
In  other  words,  its  purpose  is  that  of  a  spiritual  democ- 
racy. 

If  the  central  spirit  of  democracy  is  religious,  if  its 
prime  needs  always  will  be  a  spiritual  interpretation  of 
life  and  a  Christian  motive  to  guide  action,  then  the 
church  must  be  the  principal  agency  through  which  this 
kind  of  democracy  can  be  realized.  That  is,  however, 
supposing  that  the  church  is  in  our  society  the  principal 
agency  of  the  spiritual  life. 

Democracy  needs  churches.  These  religious  societies 
which  we  call  churches  have  grown  out  of  the  needs  of 
democracy.  If  the  autocratic  state  finds  it  needs  the 
absolutist  and  authoritative  church,  how  much  more  does 
democracy  find  it  needs  the  guidance  of  those  ideals  and 
that  light  that  develops  as  men  freely  associate  in  search 
of  the  ultimate  values  and  meanings  of  life.  Democracy 
needs  not  alone  a  spiritual  ideal;  it  needs  definite  formu- 
lations and  expressions  of  that  ideal.  It  needs  the  ex- 
pression of  that  ideal  in  social  purposes  which  gather  men 
and  direct  them  toward  spiritual  aims.  It  needs,  in  or- 
der that  all  its  life  may  be  saturated  with  religion,  many 
definite  social  foci  of  religion. 

The  special  part  which  the  church  plays  in  relation  to 
the    development   of   democracy    is    an   educational    one. 

123 


IM  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

This  is  because  the  function  of  the  church  is  essentially 
educational,  it  is  that  of  social  organization  for  the 
growth  of  lives  and  the  direction  of  society.  Much  has 
been  written  on  the  educational  work  of  the  church,^  so 
that  only  one  aspect  of  that  work  in  relation  to  democ- 
racy will  be  developed  at  this  time. 

In  order  that  the  church  may  prepare  men  and  women 
for  democracy  it  must  offer  them  a  real  experience  in  de- 
mocracy. To  belong  to  a  church  must  be  to  enjoy  a 
progressive  experience  of  life  in  an  ideal  democracy.  Per- 
haps the  most  important,  the  most  influential  relation 
which  the  church  effects  with  any  person  comes  neither 
through  preaching,  nor  classes,  nor  worship,  that  is,  not 
through  any  of  these  alone,  but  through  the  social  expe- 
rience of  belonging  to  the  church.  Unconsciously  we 
conceive  church  membership  as  a  social  experience;  but 
the  church  appears  hardly  to  recognize  the  value  and 
the  effects  of  all  those  relationships,  activities  and  expe- 
riences which  constitute  its  life.  It  is  a  society ;  its  chief 
power  over  lives  is  a  social  power,  the  force  of  the  life 
of  the  whole  group  on  the  one  and  the  effect  of  the  ex- 
perience of  living  in  the  group.  What  men  shall  be  is 
determined  less  by  what  the  minister  says,  by  what  teach- 
ers teach  or  by  what  forms  are  followed  than  by  the  kind 
of  life  they  find  inside  the  church  group.  Is  it  an  au- 
tocracy? Then  they  become  accustomed  to  think  of  their 
ideal  society  as  autocratic.  Is  it  an  oligarchy?  then,  as 
their  ideal  society,  it  glorifies  oligarchy  and  retards  de- 
mocracy. 

While  there  are  wide  differences  in  institutional  forms 
there  is  not  so  very  much  difference  in  social  spirit  in 
the  churches.  An  Episcopal  church  may  be  more  demo- 
cratic than  a  Baptist  congregation  in  spite  of  the  well- 

1  See  the  author's  "  Religious  Education  in  the  Church,"  (Scrib- 
ners,  1918)  which  gives  references  to  practically  all  the  recent 
literature  on  this  subject  in  English. 


TRAINING  THROUGH  THE  CHURCH      125 

known  democratic  form  of  government  belonging  to  the 
latter.  But,  whatever  the  form,  the  fact  remains  that, 
on  the  whole,  the  modern  church  is  not  a  democratic  in- 
stitution. It  may  be  well  to  look  at  a  few  evidences  to 
support  this  statement.  Many  churches,  the  greater  num- 
ber, neglect  the  first  principle  of  democracy,  that  the  so- 
cial organization  exists  for  the  sake  of  the  lives  of  its 
people.  They  do  not  exist  for  lives ;  they  are  organized 
to  maintain  customs,  institutions  and  forms  of  thought. 
They  are  not  judged  by  their  service  for  lives;  they  are 
judged  by  their  success  in  developing  institutional  effi- 
ciency, in  buildings,  plant,  finances,  and  membership. 
The  impressive  purpose  of  "  saving  souls  "  usually  means 
securing  adherents  to  the  institution.  Nothing  could  bet- 
ter prove  that  the  churches  are  indifferent  to  the  chief 
motive  and  ideal  of  democracy  than  the  fact  that  they 
give  the  place  of  least  importance  to  the  person  of  great- 
est import  in  a  democracy,  the  child.  They  do  not  seek 
to  develop  lives ;  if  they  did  they  would  spend  their  chief 
energies  on  lives  when  they  can  be  most  influenced,  when 
development  is  really  taking  place,  in  childhood.  Th^ 
church  will  continue  to  lag  behind  the  democracy  of  its 
own  day  and  of  the  state  until  it  pays  at  least  as  much 
attention  to  the  child  as  does  the  modern  democratic 
state. 

What  then  should  be  doneP  Furnish  eoery  life  with  a 
progressive  experience  vn  democracy.  This  cannot  be  ac- 
complished by  substituting  deacons  for  elders  or  pastors 
for  bishops.  It  will  not  come  from  without  but,  rising 
within,  determining  the  life  of  the  local  society,  the  spirit 
of  democracy  will  in  time  change  the  character  of  the 
entire  institution  and  remove  the  vestiges  of  monarchial 
forms  and  vassalage.^ 

Beginning  with  the  child  the  church  will  furnish  the 
child  a  child's  experience  of  democracy.  Ideally,  for  the 
child,  democracy  is  an  enveloping,  protecting,  nurturing 


126  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

society  devoted  to  the  chief  purpose  of  developing  his  life. 
To  the  child  to  live  in  a  democracy  is  like  living  in  a  fam- 
ily, it  is  an  experience  which  reveals  life  as  favorable  to 
his  development,  as  stimulating,  inviting,  alluring  him 
out  into  living.  This  is  true  in  the  family  because  the 
family  exists  to  nurture  the  child.  It  is  true  in  democ- 
racy because  democracy  exists  for  the  sake  of  lives.  To 
such  social  environment  and  stimulus  the  child  responds 
not  only  by  a  natural  growth  but  also  by  an  increasing 
consciousness  of  life  in  terms  of  growth.  Thus  he  learns 
to  live  the  life  of  democracy  through  the  experience  of  the 
nurture  of  democracy.  Where  are  the  churches  that  offer 
io  the  children  of  their  communities  a  society  devoted  to 
enveloping,  protecting,  nurturing  their  lives.'*  They  may 
be  found ;  but  it  is  with  difficulty. 

THE    CHILD-CENTRIC    CHURCH 

The  first  step,  then,  toward  a  truly  democratic  church, 
will  be  to  set  the  child  in  the  midst.  This  will  be  done  in 
the  practical  manner  in  which  democratic  communities  are 
now  doing  the  same  thing.  The  evidence  of  the  child- 
centric  community  is  the  school-house,  the  teaching  force, 
the  playgrounds  and  the  determination  of  custom  and 
regulation  by  the  needs  of  child-life.  The  largest  house 
the  community  builds  for  itself  is  the  child's  house,  the 
school.  Is  this  true  of  the  church.'*  The  heartiest  and 
most  immediate  response  of  a  community  always  comes  to 
an  appeal  for  the  child's  welfare,  for  playgrounds  or  civic 
betterment  in  their  behalf.  What  is  the  response  of  the 
church  to  appeals  for  the  child's  needs  ?  The  best  brains 
of  the  community  are  devoted  to  the  training  of  the  child. 
Is  this  true  in  the  church.'* 

We  meet  with  so  much  confusion  and  difficulty  in  reli- 
gious ideas,  knowledge  and  efficiencies  because  the  young 
have  failed  to  receive  religious  training.  To  men  and 
women  religion  is  an  unreal  or  an  extraneous  interest  be- 


TRAINING  THROUGH  THE  CHURCH      127 

cause  in  childhood  there  was  for  them  no  normal  and 
continuous  association  with  religion.  To  the  child  the 
church  is  so  remote,  as  an  institution,  that  we  institute 
schemes  of  artificial  direction  to  bring  children  under  the 
influence  of  the  church.  This  simply  means  that  the 
church  does  not  function  in  their  lives.  It  cannot  func- 
tion for  them  until  it  ministers  to  them  according  to  their 
needs,  until,  as  a  society,  it  takes  the  democratic  attitude 
of  devotion  to  their  lives.  When  the  church  assumes  that 
attitude  a  new  situation  is  created.  The  child  is  no  longer 
an  outsider.  Responsibility  unites  him  to  the  church.  It 
may  not  be  a  formal  union  of  membership;  it  is  a  union 
of  nurture.  That  is  the  union  the  child  can  feel  and 
understand.  When  the  church  says,  "  Our  resources  all 
belong  to  these  children,"  it  will  come  to  pass  that  the 
children  will  say  of  themselves,  "  We  belong  to  this 
church."  That  is  the  only  vital  kind  of  belonging.  It 
is  the  union  that  exists  in  a  family;  children  belong  be- 
cause the  family  is  theirs. 

Out  of  this  attitude  of  primary  devotion  to  the  needs, 
to  the  lives  of  these  little  ones  there  will  grow  the  neces- 
sary provisions  for  their  development.  No  forms  of  or- 
ganizations, no  schools,  classes  nor  anything  else  can  min- 
ister to  them  unless  all  are  but  simple  expressions  of  this 
attitude  of  devotion,  unless  they  manifest  this  purpose  as 
the  chief  purpose  of  the  church. 

The  church  will  furnish  a  developing  experience  of  de- 
mocracy to  growing  persons.  The  life  of  the  growing 
child  will  respond  to  the  attitude  of  the  church  by  devo- 
tion to  its  ideals  and  purposes.  The  democratic  church 
will  aff^ord  opportunities  for  the  child  to  express  his  devo- 
tion to  its  life  aim.  He  will  find  himself  as  a  member  of 
a  society  with  a  purpose.  He  will  learn  what  that  pur- 
pose means ;  he  will  be  taught  how  it  may  be  realized. 
The  church  will  teach  him  how  to  live.  If  it  is  organized 
to  develop  lives  it  will  make  the  lessons  of  living  its  chief 


us  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

teaching  concern.  But  it  will  do  more  than  talk  about 
living ;  it  will  furnish  the  laboratory  of  life.  That  active 
response  under  which  the  child  acquires  the  sense  of  be- 
longing will  continue  only  as  long  as  he  can  project  his 
life  into  the  society.  Here  is  the  fatal  weakness  in  the 
plans  of  many  churches;  they  do  much  for  children,  but 
they  make  no  provision  for  the  child  to  live  his  life  in 
the  life  of  the  church.  Children  do  not  belong  save 
through  the  realities  of  their  experience.  The  church  is 
a  real  society  only  as  each  one  in  some  way  can  share 
its  life,  its  activities  and  service. 

The  church  mil  direct  experience  toward  the  ideals  of 
democracy.  As  a  society  it  is  one  of  the  best  schools  of 
social  living.  But  it  may  be  a  society  without  being  a 
democracy;  it  may  have  unworthy  ends  and  exist  socially 
in  spite  of  unsocial  motives.  Mere  association  does  not 
make  a  real  society ;  social  motives,  social  purposes  and 
social  living  all  are  necessary.  So,  also,  the  church  be- 
comes a  democracy  not  by  the  elementary  expedient  of 
permitting  each  person  to  vote  at  its  official  meetings,  but 
by  consciously  associating  persons  for  the  democratic  pur- 
pose of  nurturing  lives  and  serving  society.  It  is  a  fel- 
lowship of  the  spirit  for  the  spiritual  ends  of  democracy, 
that  men  may  have  life  more  abundantly.  The  experience 
of  church  membership  is  a  reality  only  as  it  is  an  expe- 
rience in  common  devotion  to  the  ends  of  democracy.  The 
purposes  of  the  church  with  a  person  are  not  achieved 
merely  by  getting  his  membership;  they  are  achieved  as 
he  becomes  a  living  and  active  part  of  its  spirit,  its  activ- 
ity and  its  program.  The  essence  of  the  Pauline  figure 
of  the  church  as  a  body  is  that  the  members  are  in  the 
body  only  as  they  live  its  life,  only  as  they  actively  func- 
tion in  its  work.  The  church  makes  democrats  by  giving 
every  one  a  share  in  its  spiritual  work  for  society. 

The  ideal  social  life  is  realized  in  active  service.  This 
experience  of  the  life  of  democracy,  as  sharing  and  self- 


TRAINING  THROUGH  THE  CHURCH      129 

giving,  is  possible  at  very  early  stages  of  life.  It  is  not 
reserved  for  the  mature  man  any  more  than  real  partici- 
pation in  national  life  is  reserved  for  adults.  Ask  the 
small  boy  on  the  street  if  he  is  an  American ;  he  will  not 
tell  you  that  he  has  to  wait  until  he  can  vote.  He  al- 
ready belongs.  Perhaps  nothing  has  so  strengthened  his 
sense  of  belonging  as  the  practical  things  which  the  nation 
has  called  on  him  to  do.  To  plant  and  care  for  a  "  war- 
garden,"  to  sell  stamps,  to  serve  as  a  messenger  in  some 
patriotic  organization  is  just  as  important,  as  vital  and 
as  valuable  to  the  boy  as  anything  his  father  can  do  as 
a  voter  or  his  big  brother  as  a  soldier.  So  children  in 
the  church  are  finding  a  part  as  important  and,  in  the 
whole  scheme  of  spiritual  democracy,  as  essential  as  any 
that  the  adult  may  have.  One  can  only  refer  to  the  many 
interesting  projects  of  services  which  children  carry  for- 
ward in  their  classes  or  their  own  societies.^  We  must 
see,  however,  that  these  projects  are  not  simply  schemes 
to  amuse  them,  not  simply  devices  which  clever  adults  in- 
vent to  serve  as  toys  for  the  very  young,  but  that  they  are 
the  forms  of  normal  activity  along  which  the  child's  life 
moves  out;  they  are  as  natural  and  real  to  them  as  our 
work  to  us.  Their  purpose  is  not  to  hold  children  in 
the  church  until  they  are  old  enough  to  be  useful;  their 
purpose  is  positive,  to  let  the  child  live  out  every  ideal 
he  has  or  can  get. 

The  provision  which  the  church  makes  for  children  and 
the  young,  so  that  they  may  have  an  experience  of  reli- 
gion as  life  and  service,  is  a  corollary  of  our  modern 
emphasis  on  the  reality  of  the  child's  religious  experience. 
If  he  is  a  spiritual  being  then  he  has  rights  in  the  church 

1  See  the  plans  suggested  by  Miss  Rankin  in  "  Religious  Education 
for  Beginners,"  December,  1917,  "Handwork  in  Religious  Educa- 
tion," A.  G.  Wardle,  U.  of  Chicago  Press,  1916;  "Graded  Social 
Service  in  the  Sunday  School,"  W.  N.  Hutchins,  U.  of  Chicago 
Press,  1914,  "  Religious  Education  Through  Activities,"  H.  B.  Robins 
(a  free  pamphlet),  American  Baptist  Publication  Society,  1918. 


180  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

which  are  equal  to  those  of  any  other  person.  To  object 
that  his  rights  are  less  because  he  is  immature  is  to  sug- 
gest rather  that  his  rights  are  greater  because  his  needs 
,  are  greater.  No  matter  what  our  adult  desires  may  be 
our  duty  is  perfectly  plain,  we  must  cease  to  think  of  the 
church  as  a  community  institution  in  which  we  adults 
"  have  our  little  day,"  we  must  learn  to  think  of  it  as  the 
association  of  the  community's  spiritual  forces  in  order 
that  every  life  may  have  its  full  day.  That  will  force  us 
to  give  the  child  an  opportunity  for  activity  in  the  church. 
That  will  compel  some  resignations.  It  will  make  us 
ashamed,  instead  of  proud,  of  saying  that  we  have  held 
an  office  for  forty  years.  It  will  apply  logically  the 
principle  that  since  the  young  have  their  religious  life  to 
live  there  must  be  for  them  religious  work  to  do,  respon- 
sibilities to  acquire  and  joys  of  accomplishment  to  expe- 
rience. 

FACING    AN    ACTUAL    WORLD 

//  the  church  is  to  be  an  experience  vn  democracy  it 
must  face  the  realities  of  this  present  world.  Men  are 
to-day  so  far  from  the  church  because  the  church  has  set 
itself  so  far  from  men.  It  is  not  long  since  many,  per- 
haps most,  churches  were  ashamed  to  have  any  concern 
for  human  affairs;  often  they  affected  to  separate  them- 
selves so  thoroughly  from  the  secular  that  they  gave  no 
care  to  sickness,  human  misery  and  need.  But  a  spiritual 
democracy  is  in  the  very  core  of  life ;  it  is  the  life  of  the 
people.  It  cannot  lift  itself  above  the  human.  It  knows 
nothing  as  spiritual  that  is  not  also  human.  It  is  con- 
cerned with  men  now,  and  not  so  much  with  their  shrouded 
past  or  their  unknown  future.  The  world  it  would  save 
is  a  world  of  men  and  women.  Then  religion  becomes  not 
a  speculation  about  anything,  but  an  experience.  Doubt- 
less it  will  be  said  that  the  church  must  remain  unspotted 
from  the  world.     Of  course  she  must,  but  there  would 


TRAINING  THROUGH  THE  CHURCH      131 

have  been  no  need  for  such  an  injunction  if  she  was  to 
remain  aloof.  There  is  no  danger  of  being  spotted  save 
as  one  gets  into  the  crowd.  Then  the  best  preventive 
of  soil  is  service.  The  modern  church  must  go  through 
the  experience  of  the  modern  university.  It  has  passed 
from  a  remote,  cloistered  affair  into  a  laboratory  of  life 
set  in  the  midst  of  the  affairs  of  men.  To-day  it  func- 
tions in  the  field  and  the  factory.  If  the  church  is  to  edu- 
cate for  democracy  it  will  be  not  by  quiet,  dignified  re- 
treats of  instruction  but  by  prophetic  leadership  in  the 
ways  of  men,  by  living  the  life  of  the  people,  by  dealing 
with  their  real  and  present  problems. 

Need  one  insist  again  that  present-day  reality  loses  no 
whit  of  religion,  that  the  great  Teacher  of  the  church 
drew  men  because  He  treated  the  realities  of  their  imme- 
diate lives  on  the  plane  of  the  eternal  .^^  To-day  the  at- 
traction which  some  preachers  have  is  due  to  the  fact 
that  they  speak  the  language  of  our  present  experience. 
There  are  two  extremes  of  attraction  in  modern  preach- 
ing; one  is  that  of  the  seer  who  deals  with  the  eternally 
true,  the  deep  and  high  places  which  abide  forever;  we 
answer  to  his  voice,  as  deep  to  deep,  because  those  things 
of  which  he  speaks  are  the  unchanging  verities  of  all  life. 
The  other  type  speaks  of  our  every-day  plans  and  prob- 
lems; his  language  is  that  on  our  week-day  lips.  We 
answer  because  of  the  note  of  reality  and  because  of  our 
need  for  help  and  guidance  in  these  present  problems. 
Can  no  man  combine  these  two  messages ;  cannot  the  man 
who  has  been  on  the  mount  bring  its  light  into  our  dark- 
ened valley  and  help  us  to  see  these  realities  of  sin  and 
sorrow,  of  affection  and  joy  in  the  splendor  of  the  vi- 
sion eternal  and  glorious?  Unless  that  can  be  done 
preaching  is  likely  to  be  an  outworn  custom.  Democracy 
needs  the  prophet.  But  he  must  speak  in  a  known  tongue 
about  real  things  and  with  that  voice  of  authority  that 
comes  from  touch  with  the  eternal. 


182  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

Democracy  needs  spiritual  guidance.  The  prophet  who 
deals  with  realities  must  ever  be  something  more  than  a 
photographer  or  a  newspaper;  he  is  a  seer.  He  deals 
with  the  present  that  the  future  may  be  determined.  He 
leads  forward.  Democracy  is  ever  in  evolution  and  its 
course  is  determined  by  the  dominant  ideals  of  the  people. 
When  we  lose  faith  in  the  potency  of  ideals  we  turn  back- 
ward. If  we  do  not  believe  in  the  vision  we  perish.  The 
sense  of  reality  must  not  dim  the  light  or  lower  the  stand- 
ards of  ideals  which  the  church  gives  to  its  age.  Yet 
those  ideals  find  their  natural  and  most  helpful  expression 
in  forms  of  reality.  Just  as  it  is  vastly  more  effective 
to  speak  of  a  splendid  future  in  which  no  children  shall 
toil  in  factories,  no  men  be  slaves  to  others  than  it  is  to 
generalize  the  picture,  so  the  church  makes  her  vision  plain 
by  definitely  pointing  out  possible  reforms  and  improve- 
ments. It  can  translate  righteousness  into  immediately 
practical  forms  of  right-dealing  and  relationships.  Some 
may  sneer  at  these  "  impractical  "  ideals ;  but  the  church 
can  practice  them  and  then  proclaim  them.  She  must 
insist  not  only  on  looking  present-day  reality  in  the  face 
but  on  picturing  before  men  the  realities  of  a  forward- 
looking  righteousness ;  she  must  make  real  the  ideals  of 
men. 

A  real  experience  in  democracy  wiU  reveal  those  spirit- 
ual valties  for  which  democracy  exists.  Belonging  to  a 
church  ought  to  be  a  continuous  process  of  the  discovery 
of  the  joy  and  splendor  of  knowing  people,  of  human 
friendships.  In  the  very  simplest  and  most  practical  man- 
ner it  ought  to  make  us  prize  just  people  above  all  other 
prizes  that  life  has  to  offer. 

«  Hand 

Grasps    hand;    eye    lights    eye    in   good    friendship 

And  great  hearts  expand, 

And  grow  one  in  the  sense  of  this  world's  life." 

— Browning,  ''  SauV 


TRAINING  THROUGH  THE  CHURCH      133 

This  is  something  we  are  in  danger  of  losing.  Our 
hurried  life  leaves  little  time  to  cultivate  these  human 
values  that  become  ours  only  in  friendship  and  intercourse. 
But  this  consciousness  of  human  values  as  the  supreme 
worth  of  life  will  go  much  deeper  than  the  joys  of  friend- 
ship ;  where  the  church  serves  life  its  people  will  learn 
the  joy  of  seeing  lives  grow.  The  very  stuff  of  life  seems 
here  to  come  out  more  vividly  and  distinctly  than  anywhere 
else.  No  enriching  can  come  to  any  life  greater  than  that 
which  is  ours  when  we  see  that  we  have  been  able  to  help 
a  life,  when  we,  perhaps,  can  see  young  men  and  women 
stimulated,  year  after  year,  until  our  hope  for  them  is 
passed  in  their  fine  lives. 

LEAVEN    MUST    BE    IN    THE    LUMP 

The  democratization  of  the  church  will  involve  a  more 
general  fusing  of  its  life  with  the  lives  of  all  the  people. 
It  is  still  a  separated  institution.  It  is  still  a  class  affair, 
belonging  to  the  group  called  "  church  people."  The 
great  streams  of  city  life  flow  on  untouched  by  it.  Its 
ministries  do  not  really  reach  the  mass  for  they  are  im- 
posed by  an  external  and  socially  foreign  institution. 
There  are  very  few  instances  in  which,  even  in  smaller 
places,  the  church  is  so  much  of  a  community  affair  that 
it  can  be  said  to  be  the  church  of  all  the  people.  This  is 
largely  due  to  the  fact  that  a  church  is  still  regarded 
as  a  group  of  people  integrated  by  certain  intellectual 
statements  or  by  certain  special  customs.  It  does  not 
seek  to  spread  its  real  life  to  all;  it  seeks  to  draw  the 
lives  of  all  into  itself.  It  does  not  belong  to  the  com- 
munity ;  persons  in  the  community  belong  to  it.  Churches  ^ 
in  a  community  are  commonly  small  islands  of  intellec- 
tual, or  of  emotional  coherence  in  a  sea  of  practical  in- 
difference. Few  are  social  leaven ;  most  are  more  nuclea- 
tive  than  disseminating.  Apparently  the  church  is  effec- 
tive in  educating  only  those  who  are  already  in  its  group, 


tr 


184  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

so  that  the  great  flood  of  democracy  moves  on  not  imme- 
diately influenced  by  its  work. 

If  the  church  is  really  democratic  it  will  gather  to  it- 
self  all  the  spiritual  life  of  its  community.  It  will  be- 
come inclusive  of  all  spiritual  purpose  and  power.  It  will 
become  the  fellowship  of  all  who  seek  the  good  and  the 
clearing  house  of  all  who  serve  their  fellows.  It  will 
polarize  scattered  idealisms.  Its  emphasis  will  not  be  so 
much  on  diff^erentiation  as  on  association,  assimilation  and 
inspiration.  Its  fellowship  will  be,  not  through  forms 
or  through  philosophies,  but  through  common  ideals,  pur- 
poses and  service.  The  development  of  popular  forums 
indicates  something  of  what  is  possible.  Here  there  are 
no  formal  conditions  of  membership;  the  people  are  asso- 
ciated and  united  in  their  common  interests.  Somewhere 
the  people  will  find  common  spiritual  centers.  Their  so- 
cial idealism  will  be  polarized  in  integrating  rather  than 
in  segregating  agencies.     The  tendencies  are  quite  clear. 

In  some  communities  the  public  school,  with  its  social 
center,  parents'  clubs  and  recreational  program,  has  be- 
come the  means  of  nucleating  social  ideals,  stimulating 
activities,  enlarging  vision  and  uniting  workers.  Com- 
munity organizations,  bringing  all  who  desire  the  common 
good  into  one  fellowship,  are  doing  the  very  work  that 
churches  should  do.  In  an  age  that  does  not  hesitate  to 
pay  the  highest  price  to  make  the  world  a  decent  place 
to  live  in  our  former,  narrow  conditions  of  spiritual  fel- 
lowship seem  wholly  ridiculous.  A  democratic  church 
must  find  a  basis  for  membership  sufficiently  broad  to  em- 
brace all  who  give  themselves  in  true  devotion  to  the 
higher  and  spiritual  purposes  of  democracy.  It  must 
associate  all  who  set  spiritual  values  first.  Its  test  will 
be  ability  to  bring  together  all  good  men,  to  bind  them 
in  common  ideals  and  to  send  them  out  in  common  serv- 
ice. 

Custom  has  so  long  bound  us  in  the  churches  that  it 


TRAINING  THROUGH  THE  CHURCH      135 

now  has  an  authority  which  is  blindly  accepted;  it  is  the 
cause  of  our  class  and  creedal  divisions  and  our  exclusive 
groupings.  We  search  in  vain  elsewhere  for  a  justifica- 
tion. It  hides  the  simple,  basic  principles.  If  Chris- 
tianity is  a  democracy  of  the  spirit  its  churches  must 
be  spiritual  democracies.  Unless  they  practice  democracy 
they  cannot  persuade  our  world  society  to  spiritual  de- 
mocracy. Here,  if  anywhere,  men  must  have  the  oppor- 
tunity to  experience  democracy  on  its  highest  levels.  The 
educational  function  of  the  church  cannot  be  discharged 
by  telling  the  world  about  an  ideal  society ;  the  world 
needs  a  demonstration  more  than  an  exposition.  Espe- 
cially it  needs  a  demonstration  of  that  fellowship  of  which 
the  church  has  spoken  so  long.  If  any  man  is  willing  to 
learn  Christ's  way  of  life,  if  any  is  willing  to  live  for  the 
ends  for  which  he  lived,  there  ought  to  be  a  place  for  him 
in  a  church.  And  surely  that  way  and  those  ends  are 
perfectly  clear  to  us  to-day ;  it  was  the  way  of  a  brother- 
hood; it  was  the  democratic  purpose  of  pure  devotion  to 
the  lives  of  all,  to  the  realization  of  a  social  order  deter- 
mined by  spiritual  rights,  needs,  duties  and  possibilities. 
To  all  accustomed  to  think  in  terms  of  denominational 
machinery  proposals  of  this  kind  will  seem  to  be  fatally 
vague.  Yet  organized  religion  cannot  lead  democracy 
save  as  it  is  essentially  a  part  of  democracy.  If  the 
church  is  a  leaven  it  must  be  in  the  lump  and  not  on  the 
side  of  the  mixing  bowl.  If  our  organization  efficiencies 
stand  in  the  way  of  the  saturation  of  community  life  with 
religion  they  are  not  efficiencies.  We  value  many  of  them 
because  they  do  effectively  serve  the  whole  institution  as 
it  is  at  present  organized.  But  the  business  of  a  church 
is  not  that  of  serving  an  institution,  it  is  that  of  saving 
society.  To  become  effective  in  determining  the  char- 
acter of  the  democracy  of  to-morrow  the  church  must  be 
democratized  to-day.  Organized  religion  must  become 
democratic  if  democracy  is  to  be  religious. 


136  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 


CHURCH    MUST    EXPERIENCE    DEMOCRACY 

To  become  an  experience  in  democracy  the  church  must 
^  experience  democracy,  it  must  become  a  part  of  the  life 
of  democracy.  In  order  that  democracy  may  experience 
religion,  religion  must  experience  democracy.  To  satu- 
rate society  with  the  religious  ideal  the  bottle  must  be 
opened  and  the  life-giving  stream  flow  out.  Then  rigid 
lines  of  "  membership  "  will  stand  out  less  prominently 
as  separating  walls.  The  membership  that  counts  will  be 
that  of  fellowship  in  common  ideals  and  projects.  Some- 
how we  must  realize  on  the  splendid  flood  of  good  life,  of 
spiritually  minded  persons,  of  those  who  seek  the  king- 
dom that  is  peace  and  righteousness,  and  who  are  now 
outside  the  churches. 

The  church,  in  the  education  of  democracy,  will  cause 
democracy  to  become  an  experience  m  religion.  It  can 
lead  democracy  on  from  a  political  experiment  into  a 
spiritual  reality  as  it  reveals  the  spiritual  nature  of  the 
work  and  the  purposes  of  democracy.  The  church  exists 
not  alone  to  give  society  a  religion  it  has  not  hitherto 
possessed  but  to  help  it  to  identify  the  religion  it  already 
has.  Many  are  serving  spiritual  ends  who  would  be  sur- 
prised to  have  their  work  thus  characterized.  The  tem- 
ple of  God  is  neither  in  this  place  nor  in  that  but  it  covers 
all  the  ways  of  men  wherever  men  seek  the  purposes  of  > 
iGod.  True  democracy  is  not  something  that  may  be/ 
made  religious;  it  is  religious  already  in  that  it  is  de- 
voted to  spiritual  ends.  Men  find  it  hard  to  see  this.  The 
very  word  spiritual  misleads  them  into  thinking  of  some- 
thing strangely  indefinite,  belonging  to  another  and  un- 
known world. ^  They  go  on  working  for  the  well-being 
of  all ;  but  they  regard  that  as  something  quite  separated 
from  religion.     Such  persons,  of  whom  there  are  many, 

1  As  Pres.  Henry  C.  King  so  well  suggests,  and  explains,  in  his 
"Seeming  Unreality  of  the  Spiritual  Life,"  Macmillan,  1914. 


TRAINING  THROUGH  THE  CHURCH      137 

need  to  discover  the  religious  character  of  every  kind 
of  service  that  determines  the  lives  of  men  and  the  char- 
acter of  society.  They  need  to  see  that  they  are  playing 
a  part  in  forming  the  kingdom  of  goodwill  and  righteous- 
ness. 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE    PUBLIC    SCHOOLS    AND    DEMOCRACY'S    PROGRAM 

If  education  is  our  dependence  for  all  permanent  social 
improvement  public  education  is  the  peculiar  method  upon 
which  democracy  depends. 

The  public  school  is  the  most  democratic  institution  in 
American  civil  life ;  it  is  democracy  at  work  on  its  pecu- 
liar task  of  developing  people  into  social  unity  and  effi- 
ciency. It  is  democracy  in  action.  Its  development  in 
American  life  is  concurrent  with  national  development  from 
a  republic  organized  for  freedom  to  a  democracy  of  free 
men  organized  for  the  fullness  as  well  as  the  freedom  of 
life. 

The  public  school,  in  the  United  States,  has  been  at  all 
times  democratic  in  organization,  a  public  institution  in  a 
special  sense,  maintained  for  the  public,  and  governed  by 
the  public.  It  has  been  more  immediately  controlled  by 
and  responsive  to  local  sentiment  and  ideals  than  any 
other  public  institution.  Direction  and  control  have  been 
exercised  in  small  local  units.  Each  school  has  been  kept 
very  close  to  its  own  social  group.  Many  efforts  have 
been  made  to  centralize  control,  to  erect  national  educa- 
tional standards  and  to  secure  federal  direction.  Local 
control  has  not  been  an  unmixed  blessing ;  the  system  is  in 
need  of  decided  changes  to  meet  present-day  needs;  cer- 
tainly centralized  aid  and  direction  is  desirable;  but  the 
advantages  have  more  than  compensated  for  the  losses. 
With  all  their  short-comings  local  boards  of  education 
have  been  a  force  making  for  democracy,  developing  local 
responsibilities  and  keeping  alive  the  immediate  conscious- 
ness of  education  as  a  right  and  a  duty.     But  for  such  a 

138 


THE  PUBLIC  SCHOOLS  139 

democratic  system  it  would  have  been  impossible  to  de- 
velop to  their  present  efficiency  the  central  agencies  of 
counsel  and  stimulus  such  as  the  United  States  Bureau 
of  Education  and  the  voluntary  organizations  of  educa- 
tors. 

Through  its  schools  democracy  educates  itself.  In  an 
important  sense  public  education  educates  the  public.  It 
is  unfortunately  true  that  the  citizen  knows  little  about 
educational  theory  and  little  about  the  real  work  of  a 
school;  but  the  very  fact  of  the  school  as  one  of  the 
heaviest  charges  in  his  taxes  leads  him  to  put,  habitually, 
a  relatively  important  valuation  on  its  work  of  develop- 
ing lives.  A  platform  orator  recently  hurled  lurid  de- 
nunciations against  state  legislators  because  they  appro- 
priated more  money  to  hog-conservation  than  to  baby- 
saving.  But,  while  admitting  their  shameful  blindness  to 
human  values,  we  must  not  forget  that  the  public  school 
is  weighty  evidence  that,  after  all,  we  do  think  more  of 
children  than  of  cattle.  Our  educational  ideals  may  be 
hazy,  or  they  may  be  archaic,  but,  in  the  last  few  decades, 
taxation  for  elementary  and  secondary  education  has 
more  than  doubled  in  ratio  to  population  and  —  since  this 
might  mean  nothing  —  the  more  important  fact  is  that 
this  larger  investment  has  been  made  with  greater  intelli- 
gence than  ever  before.  The  marvelous  growth  in  facili- 
ties and  working  staffs  is  not  a  thing  separate  from  pub- 
lic life ;  the  people  cause  this  and  they  know  they  cause 
it.  Their  participation  in  the  educational  enterprise  has 
led  to  a  remarkable  development  of  appreciation  of  its 
importance  until,  in  normal  times,  it  is  accepted  as  our 
most  important  single  social  task. 

The  development  of  public  education  —  in  enriched  and 
extended  curricula,  increased  facilities,  larger  and  more 
beautiful  buildings  and  enlarged  and  more  efficient  teach- 
ing force  —  has  been  made  possible  because  democracy 
has  fixed  its  faith  on  public  education.     Such  impressive 


140  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

developments  are  the  results  of  large  expectations  as  to 
public  education.  These  expectations  have  changed  and 
developed  in  recent  years.  When  Horace  Mann  and 
Henry  Barnard  campaigned  for  common  elementary  edu- 
cation the  people  responded  because  they  recognized  that 
intelligence  was  necessary  to  public  safety  and  to  personal 
prosperity.  But  since  that  day  the  vision  has  been  devel- 
oping until  public  education  is  seen  as  not  only  necessary 
for  social  protection  but  essential  to  social  progress.  To- 
day we  look  to  the  school  not  alone  to  keep  growing  citi- 
zens from  wrong-doing  but  to  stimulate  them  to  right- 
living.  One  might  speak  of  this  as  a  development  from 
protective  education  to  constructive  education.  More  and 
more  the  schools  have  a  positive  function,  to  guide  the 
young  into  service  for  and  devotion  to  the  public  good. 

Education  m  a  democracy/  is  directed  toward  ideal  ends. 
America  counts  on  the  school  to  develop  the  American 
spirit,  to  make  democrats.  The  public  demands  more 
than  intelligence ;  it  demands  an  attitude  of  mind.  In  the 
trying  days  of  the  great  war  the  school  was  called  on  not 
alone  to  teach  things  about  democracy  but  to  train  in 
the  life  of  democracy,  to  develop  its  spirit  of  service  for 
life.  It  is  true  we  are  not  altogether  clear  as  to  what 
,  this  spirit  implies ;  we  often  confound  mere  sentiments  of 
i  patriotism  with  devotion  to  the  ideals  of  democracy.  But 
the  ideal  is  becoming  clearer ;  it  emerges  in  practical  ways, 
it  reveals  itself  as  the  energies  of  school  children  are 
applied  to  forms  of  human,  social  service.  And,  looking 
forward,  our  principal  concern  is  that  the  school  shall 
inspire  the  young  with  motives  and  ideals  adequate  to  the 
demands  of  to-morrow;  we  grow  impatient  with  political 
tricks  with  the  school  machinery  and  impatient  with  dis- 
cussions over  categories  of  information,  and  we  demand 
habits  of  life  and  attitudes  of  mind ;  we  expect  the  school 
to  develop  democratic  citizens.  Public  sentiment  regard- 
ing the  school  reveals  the  soul  of  America.     No  other  in- 


THE  PUBLIC  SCHOOLS  141 

stitution  is  cherished  so  highly,  no  other  guarded  so  zeal- 
ously. It  is  our  one  common  institution  of  social  ideals. 
It  is  the  one  on  which  we  depend  most  completely  for  so- 
cial improvement  and  national  salvation. 

Such  high  expectations  as  these  are  the  bases  for  pop- 
ular criticism  of  the  school.  Like  the  church  it  is  gener- 
ously criticized  because  its  possibilities  are  generously 
appraised.  Much  of  the  criticism  is  negligible,  but  there 
is  a  deep  and  serious  inquiry  as  to  the  kind  of  persons  the 
school  is  producing.  It  inquires  why,  after  so  much  edu- 
cational progress,  there  is,  in  schooling,  still  so  little  con- 
sciousness of  direct  social  purpose?  The  criticism  that 
points  to  the  juvenile-court  records,  to  the  growth  of 
youthful  crime  and  the  spread  of  political  corruption  may 
not  always  be  just  but  it  is  a  clear  indication  of  moral 
expectation. 

Democracy  demands  a  moral  product  from  its  schools. 
The  demand  is  entirely  justifiable,  for  the  ultimate  pur- 
pose of  education  is  moral  and  the  primary  needs  of  a 
democracy  are  moral  and  spiritual.  Education  is  the 
organization  and  direction  of  social  experience  to  the  end 
that  persons  may  be  competent  to  live  as  social  beings. 
Social  living  is  essentially  a  moral  process;  it  involves 
every  form  of  human  relationship;  in  it  are  included  all 
the  problems  of  life.  Democratic  living  is  a  social  and 
a  moral  process ;  it  is  a  matter  of  human  behavior  under 
social  relations ;  it  involves  all  matters  of  the  will,  of 
ideals  of  habits,  of  conduct,  of  right  and  wrong.  Our 
whole  system  of  education  is  a  farce  so  far  as  democracy 
is  concerned,  an  utter  failure,  if  it  does  no  more  than 
impart  information,  no  more  than  give  to  the  world  so 
many  million  heads  holding  that  which  so  many  thou- 
sands of  books  already  contain.  We  count  on  public 
education  for  no  less  than  the  growth  of  citizens  who  in- 
creasingly see  and  know  and  love  the  right,  the  social 
good,  the  democratic  ideals  of  a  world  of  righteousness 


142  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

and  loving  good-will,  who  increasingly  devote  themselves 
with  growing  intelligence  and  skill  to  these  ends. 

American  schooling  has  often  turned  its  back  on  the 
realities  of  democracy.  Many  a  boy  comes  out  of  high 
school  knowing  a  good  deal  more  about  Athens  and  Carth- 
age than  he  knows  of  his  own  city ;  the  college  student 
often  recites  on  Plato's  ideas  on  justice  without  the  least 
thought  of  their  possible  applications  to  present  social 
conditions.  We  train  youth  to  shun  the  split  infinitive 
with  holy  horror  but  we  care  not,  educationally,  whether 
they  separate  their  neighbor's  families  or  their  fortunes. 
We  tithe  the  mint  and  anise  of  dead  conjugations  and 
neglect  the  living  principles  of  daily  conduct.  We  are 
so  burdened  with  learning  we  have  no  time  to  learn  to 
live.  As  Sir  Arthur  Helps  remarked  of  another  day, 
"  Some  persons  have  learned  so  many  languages  they  have 
ceased  to  think  in  any  one." 

WHAT    IS    WRONG    WITH    EDUCATION.? 

Better  far  to  have  been  a  boy  educated  in  long-ago 
Egypt,  where  Plato  says  the  "  Youth  were  suffered  neither 
to  hear  nor  learn  any  verses  or  songs  other  than  those 
which  were  calculated  to  inspire  them  with  virtue,"  than 
to  be  one  of  the  high-school  youths  whom  one  may  see  in 
almost  any  city,  uncouth,  flagrantly  regardless  of  the 
rights  of  others,  slaves  to  the  cigarette,  affecting  blase 
cynicism  on  all  ideal  subjects,  and  boasting  of  filthy- 
mindedness  and  craft.  Such  lads  do  not  represent  their 
class;  but  they  are  sufficiently  numerous  in  the  high-school 
crowd  to  give  rise  to  serious  thought.  It  is,  of  course, 
true  that  the  school  is  neither  wholly  nor  principally  to 
blame,  that  selfish  and  foolishly  indulgent  parents  must 
be  called  to  account.  But  the  question  still  remains, 
what  are  the  schools  doing  to  counteract  the  tendencies 
that  cause  such  types  to  exist?  Are  they  endeavoring  to 
make  good  citizens  out  of  these  boys.?     If  they  fail  to 


THE  PUBLIC  SCHOOLS  143 

meet  squarely  the  problem  created  by  these  youths  they 
acknowledge  failure  in  their  entire  program.  We  are 
wasting  a  lot  of  money  on  schools  where  cattle  pens  would 
do  if  we  can  only  raise  brutes.  Ancient  systems  may  be 
idealized,  but  our  system  will  avail  little  until  we  have 
realized  some  of  their  ideals. 

Something  is  wrong  when  year  after  year  our  social 
statistics  report,  parallel  to  the  decreases  in  illiteracy, 
appalling  incre^ases  in  juvenile  delinquency.  This  is  more 
than  the  result  of  increasingly  exact  regulation  of  youth 
life,  and  it  is  more  than  a  matter  of  social  awareness  to 
offenses.  Both  these  factors  increase  the  figures,  but  they 
by  no  means  account  for  the  fact  that  boys  commit  the 
crimes  that  once  were  confined  to  men,  that  the  crimes 
are  actually  more  prevalent  and  often  much  more  vicious. 
Our  court  records  simply  indicate  that  our  methods  of 
training  for  life  have  not  kept  pace  with  the  developing 
moral  demands  of  life.  Properly  to  distribute  the  blame 
for  this  condition  would  call  to  account  industrial,  eco- 
nomic and  social  conditions,  family  life,  the  polarization 
of  population  in  great  cities,  and  those  changes  in  social 
ideals  under  which  we  have  passed  from  the  concept  of 
life  in  terms  of  discipline  and  endeavor  for  improvement 
to  the  concept  of  life  as  pleasure.  But  just  here  we  are 
concerned  with  only  one  social  institution,  that  which  is 
charged  with  responsibility  for  training  youth  for  the  life 
of  the  state.  What  is  it  doing  to  prevent  juvenile  delin- 
quency ? 

The  public  schools  have  ideal  possibilities.  The  school 
is  an  institution  which  has  developed  remarkable  moral 
potentialities  and  which  has  a  clearly  stated  ideal  of  moral 
purpose  but  has  not  organized  those  potentialities  toward 
that  purpose.  No  one  can  fail  to  see  the  moral  power  of 
the  schools  as  social  organizations.  They  are  adminis- 
tered by  a  body  of  idealists,  people  who  remain  in  that 
profession  because  it  satisfies  their  ideals,  because  of  a 


144  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

consciousness  of  sharing  in  the  development  of  persons. 
If  this  is  not  the  case  it  is  hard  to  account  for  the  fact 
that  the  pubHc-school  system  draws  to  itself  the  best 
brains  and  abilities  of  the  country  and  holds  them  in  its 
trying  service.  True  there  are  many  who  are  merely  text- 
book mechanics;  but  they  are  not  representative  of  the 
great  teaching  body.  To  know  the  teachers  in  American 
public  schools  is  to  know  a  people  with  a  passion  and  an 
ideal.  Their  eyes  lighten  whenever  they  have  the  chance 
to  look  above  the  wheels  of  the  factory  system  of  instruc- 
tion and  to  tell  of  what  they  are  really  doing  with  lives. 
Why  not  give  these  idealists  a  chance? 

The  schools  are  least  efficient  in  that  i/n  which  they  are 
most  potent.  The  schools  have  several  distinct  forms  of 
moral  education  already  in  operation.  First,  they  are 
forming  character  by  the  simple  fact  that  they  are  asso- 
ciating the  lives  of  youth.  They  form  character  as  they 
direct  and  organize  the  experiences  of  these  lives  under 
social  conditions.  Children  here,  unconsciously,  learn  the 
greatest  lesson  the  school  can  teach,  how  to  live  together. 
They  learn  to  work  together,  to  play  together,  to  secure 
social  harmony  and  cooperation.  Morals  is  wholly  a  mat- 
ter of  living  harmoniously  and  helpfully  with  other  lives. 
In  this  the  school  affords  experience  every  day.  Second, 
they  are  imparting,  in  the  course  of  instruction,  the  ideals 
of  life.  This  takes  place  not  only  in  the  study  of  heroes  ^ 
and  great  deeds,  but  even  more  effectively  in  every  item 
of  instruction  as  it  is  given  as  an  expression  of  the  method 
of  life,  the  law  of  life,  the  best  way  to  do  things.  Third, 
pupils  are  under  the  direct  influence  of  persons  whom  they 
tend  to  idealize  whenever  personal  worth  is  evident.^ 

1  On  a  method  of  imparting  spiritual  ideals  through  biography  see 
E.  O.  Sisson  in  "  Religious  Education,"  Vol.  VI,  p.  78-f,  and  F.  C. 
Sharp  in  "Education  for  Character,"  Bobbs-Merrill  Co.,  1917. 

2  "  We  believe  that  the  personality  of  the  teacher  and  the  general 
organization  of  the  school  are  primary  agents  in  the  development 
of  character,"  New  York  Conference,  1911. 


THE  PUBLIC  SCHOOLS  145 

Fourth,  moral  principles  are  directly  taught  in  some 
schools  and  incidentally  in  almost  all. 

The  schools  are  moral  educators  lacking  moral  con- 
sciousness. The  very  fact  that  we  complain  at  not  re- 
ceiving the  moral  product  indicates  social  expectancy  as 
to  the  schools.  The  school  acknowledges  the  justice  of 
the  expectancy,  but  appears  to  be  powerless  to  meet  it. 
This  is  so  because  neither  an  ideal  leadership  nor  an  un- 
organized, and  largely  unrecognized,  potency  for  social 
training  will  be  sufficient  to  meet  the  very  real  and  stem 
demands  of  these  times.  If  socially-,  morally-minded  per- 
sons are  to  be  the  principal  product  of  the  school  their 
development  must  be  its  principal  purpose.  We  will  not 
have  personal  effects  in  education  until  we  set  first  the 
personal  aim. 

The  public  school  is  not  moral  in  that  it  does  not  have 
a  moral  aim.  It  is  not  yet  a  social  institution.  It  is  bom 
of  society,  supported  by  society.  Its  purpose  is  prepara- 
tion for  living  in  society.  But  it  is  not  organized  as  a 
society  in  order  to  give  children  real  social  experience. 
We  have  constructed  a  sound  theory  of  social  education  -^ 
but  we  have  applied  it  scarcely  at  all  in  our  public  schools. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  suggest  that  the  failure  to 
apply  the  principles  of  social  education  involves  failure 
to  accomplish  moral  training,  for  social  training  and 
moral  training  are  the  same  thing.  The  morality  we  de- 
sire is  not  that  of  isolated,  individual  perfection ;  it  is  that 
of  persons  trained  to  live  in  society,  to  discharge  their 
obligations  to  their  fellows  gladly  and  in  love.  We  do 
not  charge  the  schools  with  failure  to  produce  unstained 
characters;  our  charge  is  that  they  do  not  attempt  the 
task  they  confess  is  theirs,  to  train  lives  for  right  social 
living. 

iFor  example  in  Dewey,  "The  School  and  Society,"  Univ.  of 
Chicago  Press,  rev.  ed.,  1917;  S.  Button,  "Social  Phases  of  Educa- 
tion," MacmiUan,  1910;  G.  A.  Coe,  "A  Social  Theory  of  Religious 
Education,"  Scribners,  1917. 


146  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

THE  LACK  OF  MORAL.  PURPOSE 

Public  educators  have  not  designed  the  school  courses 
for  moral  ends.  The  curriculum  is  a  traditional  bequest 
from  the  cultural  ideals  of  the  leisure  class  who  once 
monopolized  educational  privileges.  Where  these  ideals 
have  been  abandoned  the  changes  that  have  been  made 
have  been  for  the  purpose  of  training  individuals  to  suc- 
cess in  business.  The  curriculum,  almost  universally,  has 
remained  unaffected  by  the  development  of  social  think- 
ing; social  principles  which  have  become  the  founda- 
tions of  modern  educational  theory  have  been  ignored  in 
its  selection.  Until  in  the  curriculum  there  is  evidence 
of  a  real  consciousness  of  the  actual  facts  of  the  child's 
life  and  the  citizen's  life  we  will  find  it  hard  to  believe  that 
the  schools  are  organized  for  life  purposes.  These  facts 
are  not  alone  those  of  business ;  they  are  not  found  alone 
in  literary  and  mathematical  activities ;  they  are  the  facts 
of  social  living,  of  daily  contacts  and  of  relationships 
with  all  other  human  beings.  The  great  problem  of  life 
is  not  after  all  that  of  making  a  living;  for  us  all  it  is 
the  problem  of  so  determining  the  relationships  of  men 
that  all  problems  of  work  and  means  of  living  are  solved. 

Our  schools  are  not  moral,  and  therefore  cannot  have 
a  moral  effect  because  they  are  not  supported  by  public 
moral  convictions.  We  parents  do  not  send  our  children 
to  school  for  any  particular  reason.  Usually  they  are 
sent  under  a  vague,  general  notion  that  "  education  is  a 
good  thing."  We  are  taught  that  it  gives  every  one  a 
chance  to  get  ahead  in  business.  Public  money  often  is 
spent  in  an  immoral  way,  in  the  support  of  institutions 
which  have  no  clearly  understood  public  function  in  life. 
To  consent  to  the  use  of  public  money  either  because 
schooling  is  the  fashion  or  in  the  hope  that  it  will  boost 
my  boy  into  a  position  of  social  superiority  is  to  abuse 
a  public  trust.     In  a  democracy  public  institutions  must 


THE  PUBLIC  SCHOOLS  14!7 

^xist  for  social  ends.  We  need  a  new  democratic  con- 
science on  public  education.  The  schools  constitute  de- 
mocracy's great  opportunity  to  train  the  youth  of  to-day 
for  the  life  of  to-morrow.  To  send  a  child  to  school  is  to 
take  a  significant  step  in  committing  him  to  public  liv- 
ing ;  it  is  the  act  by  which  the  family  consecrates  the  child 
to  the  life  of  democracy.  It  is  a  recognition  that  his  life 
needs  more  than  the  family  can  give;  it  needs  the  experi- 
ence of  the  larger  public  life ;  it  needs  training  for  de- 
mocracy by  experience  in  a  democratic  social  life.  As 
they  return  to  our  homes  we  are  solicitous  about  their 
lessons ;  are  we  solicitous  about  their  education  in  social 
life?  Do  we  realize  that  the  lessons  are  only  incidental 
to  the  entire  experience  of  school  life?  Are  we  willing  to 
hold  things  in  true  proportion,  to  hold  lessons  to  their 
contributory  place  and  to  see  the  entire  school  process 
in  the  perspective  of  training  in  and  for  democracy? 
We  say  that  the  schools  exist  to  make  good  citizens,  but 
we  do  not  hold  them  to  that  purpose  and  judge  them  by 
that  product.  When  we  do  we  shall  think  of  schooling 
primarily  as  a  moral  process  and  test  it  by  moral  re- 
sults. 

No  matter  how  many  formal  systems  of  morality  are 
taught  schools  do  not  become  moral  institutions  until 
they  train  moral  persons,  who  coming  up  into  life  take 
it  all  in  terms  of  social  responsibility,  who  are  both 
desirous  and  competent  to  solve  the  problems  of  social 
adjustments.  One  may  test  a  school  by  the  attitude  of 
its  graduates  to  public  interests,  to  slums  and  municipal 
vice,  to  tuberculosis,  to  labor  problems,  to  neighbors  and 
to  other  nations. 

Public  schools  will  he  as  good  as  public  ideals.  We 
must  create  a  popular  demand  for  a  social  product  from 
our  schools.  We  must  test  these  institutions,  no  longer 
by  whether  our  children  have  acquired  certain  facilities 
in  memory  exercises,  nor  by  whether  they  have  a  brief, 


148  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

temporary  and  fading  acquaintance  with  the  classics,  but 
by  whether  they  are  learning  to  live  as  social  beings, 
whether  they  know  the  right,  love  truth,  hate  a  lie  and 
delight  to  follow  the  life  of  service,  the  pursuit  of  the 
good.  We  must  demand  efficient  democrats.  We  begin 
to  realize  that  while  efficiency  does  mean  ability  to  earn 
one's  living,  it  must  mean  also  ability  to  contribute  to 
the  whole  of  life  and  ability  to  be  of  service,  ability  to 
count  for  a  better  age. 

Any  failure  in  the  school  is  a  social  failure;  it  is  a 
common,  public  responsibility.  The  real  difficulty  lies 
just  here:  the  school  is  a  public  institution  responsive 
to  the  public  will.  Its  short-comings  are  largely  inher- 
ent in  democracy;  it  is  created  by  the  people  and  admin- 
istered by  the  people.  It  is  giving  us  what  the  people 
want.  This  would  seem  to  indicate  that  a  rigid  adherence 
to  the  democratic  principle  would  prevent  any  progress 
in  the  schools.  But  there  are  several  saving  considera- 
tions. First,  democracy  may  mean  improvement.  Prog- 
ress depends  on  the  principle  that  if  a  people  can  be 
moved  to  will  their  own  elevation  they  will  go  much  farther 
than  they  would  under  any  sort  of  external  power.  Sec- 
ond, the  people  can  be  taught  to  desire  better  schools,  and 
so  to  recognize  the  need  for  social  training  that  they  will 
insist  on  a  moral  product  from  the  schools. 

Some  of  the  best,  practical  improvements  in  public- 
school  activities  have  been  the  results  of  campaigns  to 
educate  public  opinion.  The  teachers  wanted  better  meth- 
ods ;  the  principals  agitated  for  them.  But  the  changes 
were  only  effected  when  a  Parents'  Association,  or  some 
like  organization,  developed  the  public  mind  and  when 
an  aroused  social  opinion  insisted  on  better  things. 

The  public  is  the  real  educator  and  the  public  needs 
education.  Evidently,  then,  an  immediately  practical 
step  would  be  a  program  of  the  education  of  public  opin- 
ion on  the  subject  of  democratic  education.     One  of  the 


THE  PUBLIC  SCHOOLS  149 

first  steps  will  be  to  make  the  schools  more  truly  public 
property.  The  customs  of  educational,  professional  se- 
crecy must  be  abandoned.  Through  the  press,  through 
school  papers  and  through  public  gatherings  at  the  school 
that  familiarity  with  the  school  which  we  had  in  child- 
hood can  be  maintained  and  developed  through  life.  Par- 
ents' Associations  will  help  greatly.  Leaders  of  public 
opinion  may  develop  sane  popular  thinking  and  warm  in- 
terest in  the  schools.  It  is  just  as  much  the  duty  of  the 
church  minister  to  preach  on  public  education  —  pro- 
vided he  really  knows  something  about  it  —  as  it  is  his 
duty  to  preach  on  private  righteousness. 

PvMic  responsibility  places  all  persons  in  a  moral  at- 
titude  towards  the  schools.  It  is  the  moral  duty  of  the 
people  to  understand  the  work  of  the  schools.  It  is  an 
immoral  act  to  send  children  to  an  institution  from  which 
we  expect  moral  traiiling  and  not  know  whether  that  train- 
ing is  being  given  or  how  it  is  being  given.  It  is  an  im- 
moral act  to  be  one  of  the  owners  of  this  social  institu- 
tion and  to  remain  in  ignorance  of  its  operations.  Ig- 
norance regarding  modern  educa^tion  is  ignorance  on 
social  duty.  It  is  strange  that  so  many  religious  people 
to-day  apparently  are  more  concerned  about  how  a  few 
thousand  people  lived  several  thousand  years  ago  than 
about  how  the  millions  of  people  of  to-day  are  being  pre- 
pared to  live  in  to-morrow. 

It  is  the  moral  duty  of  the  people  to  express  their  will 
regarding  the  schools.  This  they  do  not  do  to-day.  The 
common  system  of  the  administration  of  public  schools 
in  the  United  States  is  an  insult  to  education  and  a  trav- 
esty on  democracy.  We  elect,  to  conduct  the  affairs  of 
the  school,  a  board  of  people,  who  know  no  more  about 
education  than  about  anything  else.  This  board  is  quite 
incapable  of  discharging  the  duties  it  assumes  and  usually 
unwilling  to  select  a  trained  expert  to  whom  the  admin- 
istration might  be  committed.     The  failure  of  our  schools 


150  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

in  their  moral  product  has  been  due,  more  than  to  any- 
thing besides,  to  our  method  of  public  control.  The 
method  has  been  immoral;  it  has  involved  the  acceptance 
of  a  social  responsibility  without  any  serious  effort  to 
discharge  it.  It  has  been  imperfectly  democratic.  The 
public  has  lightheartedly  laid  its  responsibility  upon 
others  without  the  least  concern  for  their  competency. 
Now  we  are  demanding  that  the  workers  in  the  schools 
take  more  seriously  their  social  responsibilities  while  we, 
the  society  which  owns  and  conducts  the  schools,  refuse 
to  take  our  trusteeship  seriously. 

Social  responsihility  involves  obligation  to  the  world's 
future.  We  have  a  high  religious  duty  toward  public 
education.  It  lies  not  in  the  details  of  administration, 
not  in  insisting  that  this  or  the  other  specific  internal  re- 
form shall  be  immediately  made,  still  less  in  exercising 
our  freedom  of  general  criticism.  It  lies  in  discharging 
in  the  spirit  of  full  social  responsibility  our  trusteeship 
for  the  lives  of  the  young  and  for  this  public  institution. 
That  we  can  best  do  at  this  time  by  insisting  that  in  this 
educational  agency  the  science  of  education  shall  have  free 
opportunity  to  effect  the  purposes  of  education.  We  are 
not  all  educators,  but  we  are  all  trustees.  We  cannot 
administer,  but  we  can  insist  that  only  those  who  are 
capable  shall  administer.  We  can  take  the  school  out 
of  politics  and  set  it  in  education.  We  can  secure  com- 
petent administrators  and  then  give  them  freedom  and 
responsibility. 

AWAKENING    OF    THE    EDUCATIONAL,    CONSCIENCE 

Educational  administration,  backed  up  by  public  opin- 
ion, will  make  possible  a  tremendous  step  toward  social 
efficiency,  that  is,  toward  securing  the  desired  moral  prod- 
uct from  the  schools.  This  is  the  case  because.  First,  the 
trained  educators  are  the  very  ones  who  realize  the  essen- 
tially  spiritual   character   of   education   and   its    social, 


THE  PUBLIC  SCHOOLS  151 

moral  aim.  They  have  been  trained  in  the  science  of 
education.  They  have  seen  it  as  a  social  process.  They 
are  the  ones  who  have  most  openly  and  fully  expressed 
their  conviction  as  to  the  moral  aim.^  Second,  they  alone 
are  capable  of  directing  the  necessary  reorganization  un- 
der the  acceptance  of  the  new  ideals.  This  is  an  educa- 
tional problem  calling  for  the  most  exact  scientific  knowl- 
edge and  the  widest  experience.  Third,  trained  educa- 
tional administration  under  freedom  will  secure  the  de- 
sired moral  results  because  these  results  can  flow  only 
from  a  thoroughgoing  application  of  the  principles  of 
education. 

The  last  mentioned  consideration  is  so  important  that 
it  deserves  more  than  a  passing  mention.  When  we  criti- 
cize the  schools  for  failure  to  train  in  moral  living  we  are 
simply  stating  their  educational  failure.  Education  which 
does  not  develop  the  powers  of  living  in  social  relations 
is  not  education,  for  the  development  of  those  powers  is 
both  the  process  and  the  purpose  of  education.  We  are 
not  demanding  that  the  schools  take  up  some  new  duty; 
we  are  only  asking  that  they  fully  discharge  that  which 
they  already  have.  Education  is  for  purposes  of  social 
training ;  it  must  have  a  moral  product  in  lives  habituated, 
motivated  and  efficient  to  live  with  other  lives  and  to  ren- 
der to  the  world  the  service  of  full  living.  This  is  all  we 
are  asking.  It  will  be  secured  when  we  give  the  educa- 
tional process  free  course  to  work  in  the  schools. 

We  can  only,  after  all,  lay  at  our  own  doors,  we  the 
public,  the  blame  for  the  failure  of  the  schools.     They 

1  See  the  Declaration  of  the  Conference  on  Moral  Education, 
conducted  by  The  Religious  Education  Association  at  Teachers 
College,  New  York:  "We  .  .  .  believe  that  the  moral  aim,  i.e.,  the 
formation  of  character,  should  be  treated  as  fundamental  in  all 
education;  that  morality  has  a  positive  as  well  as  a  negative  content; 
that  the  former  should  receive  primary  emphasis;  that  it  consists, 
in  one  aspect,  of  promotion  of  the  common  good,  in  another,  of 
the  attainment  of  individual  character."  See  the  complete  statement 
in  Religious  Education  for  April,  1911,  pp.  117,  118. 


152  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

are  what  we  will  them  to  be.  We  prate  like  idle  children 
when  we  complain  of  moral  inadequacy  so  long  as  we 
evade  our  own  moral  responsibility  toward  these  our  own 
institutions. 

WHAT    IS    MORAL    EDUCATION? 

Undoubtedly  the  situation  would  be  simplified  if  we 
were  entirely  in  the  light  as  to  what  is  meant  by  moral 
education.  If  we  mean  enriching  the  student's  knowl- 
edge of  ethics,  then  it  is  necessary  only  to  organize  the 
material  on  the  historical  development  of  moral  princi- 
ples and  to  present  this  together  with  a  philosophical 
analysis  of  moral  conduct  and  its  principles.  But  surely 
this  is  not  our  aim.  Moral  education  is  something  very 
different  from  and  vastly  more  important  and  practical 
than  instruction  in  morals.  "  Moral  education  "  is  es- 
sentially a  misleading  phrase;  it  implies  the  notion  that 
there  is  a  department  of  human  interest  or  abilities  which 
may  be  regarded  separately  and  which  we  call  "  morals." 
It  carries  the  implication  that  the  desired  end  would  be 
attained  by  special  topics  in  the  curriculum,  by  adding 
courses  in  morality.  This  concept  has  led  to  the  prac- 
tice of  arranging  lessons  on  the  different  so-called  virtues, 
conducting  drills  on  selected  moral  maxims  and  attempt- 
ing moral  education  by  instruction  in  morals.  It  assumes 
that  an  intellectual  analysis  is  the  same  thing  as  a  vital 
experience.  But  the  aim  in  education  is  not  an  expert 
on  morality  but  an  expert  in  morality,  one  who  is  capable 
habitually  of  the  moral  life.  As  in  the  phrase  "  religious 
education"  so  in  "moral  education"  the  adjective  is 
descriptive,  indicating  the  aim  and  quality  of  the  educa- 
tional process.  That  aim,  which  determines  the  process, 
is  that  through  the  experience  of  all  schooling  youth 
should  be  habituated  to  full  competency  to  social  living. 
Moral  education  means  education  directed  consciously  to- 


THE  PUBLIC  SCHOOLS  153 

ward  a  society  of  righteousness,  a  brotherhood  of  good- 
will, a  democracy  of  love  and  goodness  and  well-being. 

At  all  events  what  we  as  parents  desire  from  the  schools, 
that  which  as  citizens  we  seek,  is  that  education  shall  count 
for  moral  character.  We  desire  boys  and  girls  who  love 
truth  and  honor  more  than  aught  else  of  their  own,  and 
their  fellowmen  more  than  anything  that  is  their  own., 
We  would  have  our  children  grow  up  to  hate  a  lie,  to, 
loathe  all  meanness,  to  honor  all  truth  and  greatness, 
to  cultivate  the  things  that  are  good,  to  seek  out  high 
thoughts,  to  give  their  lives  to  noble,  unselfish  ends,  and 
unreservedly  to  live  for  the  common  happiness  and  good. 
We  seek  spiritual  democrats.  We  desire  the  schools  to 
help  us  to  this  end;  we  expect  the  schools,  in  a  word,  to 
teach  children  how  to  live  and  to  teach  them  this  great 
inclusive  subject,  so  that  they  will  naturally,  habitually 
work  out  strong  and  fair  lives  for  themselves  and  a  better, 
finer,  sweeter  society  for  all.  The  aim  turns  us  back  not 
so  much  to  any  special  subject  as  to  the  need  for  a  social 
consciousness  that  will  dominate  all  subjects. 

The  primacy  of  the  moral  aim  should  make  it  dom- 
inant in  the  curriculum.  It  will  be  said  that  the  school 
curriculum  is  overcrowded  already.  Then  it  is  time  to 
take  stock  and  see  what  had  best  be  thrown  out.  Take 
first  things  first ;  if  conduct  is  the  largest  thing  in  life, 
let  conduct  become  the  guiding  principle  in  the  curriculum ; 
then  all  things  can  come  in  the  order  of  their  merit  for  this 
actual  social  life  of  ours.  Our  present  curricula  are  de- 
termined by  a  process  which  has  for  decades  introduced 
new  subjects  and  never  shown  an  old  one  to  the  door. 
They  have  become  more  and  more  crowded,  until  all  a 
teacher  can  do  is  to  hurl  the  bare  bones  at  a  class.  Why, 
for  example,  should  the  school  attempt  to  exhaust  life's 
knowledge  of  the  classics  of  English  literature?  Why 
not  be  satisfied  to  start  a  habit?     Life  leaves  much  time 


154  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

for  learning;  the  schools  can  leave  some  facts  unknown. 
Really  to  teach  the  art  of  right  living  will  mean  the 
abandonment  of  the  factory  method  of  pedagogy  by  mass- 
drills,  giving  teachers  smaller  classes,  choosing  teachers 
for  their  powers  of  leadership,  not  for  their  cheapness ; 
paying  more  in  taxes  for  this  supreme  task;  abandoning 
our  follies,  our  weak  pride  over  traditional  trifles  and 
putting  life  before  everything  else  in  the  curriculum. 


CHAPTER  XII 

THE    SCHOOLS    AND    MOEAL    TRAINING 

The  society  of  to-morrow  is  in  the  school  of  to-day. 
Democracy  invests  in  the  education  of  youth  to-day  be- 
cause it  believes  it  is  possible  to  determine,  through  them, 
the  character  of  to-morrow. 

The  possibility  of  realizing  democracy  depends  on  the 
training  of  the  young  in  its  habits  and  ideals.  As  a  spe- 
cial type  of  society  democracy  demands  special  types  of 
education  in  order  to  secure  preparation  for  its  special 
form  of  social  living.  Therefore,  education  for  democ- 
racy is  social  training  specifically  directed  toward  certain 
qualities  jand  characteristics.  The  tests  of  democratic 
education  pass  beyond  the  intellectual  to  the  moral.  We 
look  for  certain  kinds  of  persons  from  the  schools. 

Once  we  sought  to  make  youth  good  by  repression.  In 
fact  the  only  good  child,  of  whose  goodness  we  could  feel 
assured,  was  the  one  safely  laid  away  in  the  church-yard. 
Now  we  believe  that  the  duty  of  society  is  to  stimulate 
the  child  to  express  his  whole  life  normally.  Instead  of 
lamenting  that  there  are  no  good  children  we  subscribe 
to  the  doctrine  that  there  are  no  bad  ones.  Faith  in  nat- 
ural depravity  has  waned  and  faith  in  growing  lives  takes 
its  place.  Education  emphasizes  development  rather  than 
discipline.  It  sees  in  children  not  only  the  society  of 
the  future  time,  but  society  in  the  future  tense,  further 
along  on  the  road  toward  realized  ideals.  We  no  longer 
seek  to  force  young  lives  into  the  set  molds  of  our  present 
ways,  ways  that  we  know  to  be  but  sad  compromises,  after 
all.  Rather  we  would  face  them  forward ;  we  would  stim- 
ulate them  to  self-realization.     We  do  not  know  what  they 

165 


156  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

may  yet  attain  to,  but  this  we  do  know,  that  above  all 
besides,  we  ^crave  for  them  riches  and  power  in  the  realm 
of  character. 

Changing  tiTnes  call  for  changed  methods.  In  a  rela- 
tively simple  order  of  society  the  functions  of  the  schools 
«eem  to  be  simple  and  easily  discharged.  The  experience 
of  the  students  is  comparatively  uniform;  their  relations 
are  simple  and  the  demands  of  society  upon  them  are 
easily  met.  But  when  we  face  our  modern  congested  life, 
with  its  cosmopolitan  character,  its  complexities  of  liv- 
ing, its  temptations  and  varieties  of  possibilities,  it  is 
obvious  that  the  schools  have  new  problems.  City  living 
frequently  involves  the  loss  of  home  consciousness  and  the 
decay  of  neighborliness  with  its  power  to  mold  lives; 
it  brings  a  multiplicity  of  distractions  and  a  new  variety 
in  types  of  living.  Add  to  this  the  industrial  situation, 
the  demands  on  youth  to  early  exclusive  application  to 
toil,  the  infinite  variety  of  possible  tasks,  the  moral  strain 
of  the  current  conflict  between  diff'erent  orders  of  work- 
ers and  between  employer  and  employee,  and  it  is  evi- 
dent that  the  old  simple  type  of  neighborly  school  will 
not  meet  the  need  of  the  present  day. 

Our  "  general  culture  "  has  failed.  We  have  expected 
to  meet  the  need  of  increasingly  complex  social  living  in 
two  ways.  First,  by  dependence  on  compulsory  general 
education.  We  said,  Give  every  child  all  the  cultural  ad- 
vantages and  knowledge  discipline  that  belongs  to  a 
gentleman  and  you  will  make  gentlemen  of  all.  We,  there- 
fore, selected  a  wide,  inclusive  curriculum  designed  to  be 
applied  by  a  factory  process  which  passed  the  child 
through  the  stages  of  a  knowledge  mill,  the  elements  be- 
ing determined  by  the  traditional  requirements  of  the  gen- 
tleman. We  forgot  that  the  knowledge  processes  were 
only  incidental  to  the  making  of  the  gentleman,  that  the 
informational  elements  in  the  training  of  the  favored  son, 
of  a  few  generations  ago,  were  only  a  small  fraction  of 


THE  SCHOOLS  AND  MORAL  TRAINING      157 

that  whole  course  of  life,  that  total  environment  which 
molded  all  his  thoughts  and  habituated  his  whole  life. 
The  aim  was  right,  to  make  every  youth  a  gentleman, 
that  is  one  who  took  life  in  terms  of  obHgation  and  who, 
preparing  himself  for  the  life  of  usefulness,  learned  to 
live  in  gentleness,  goodwill,  social  harmony  and  efficiency. 
But  we  centered  attention  on  the  gentleman's  head  and 
forgot  his  hands  and  his  heart.  How  signally  the  infor- 
mational process  has  failed  to  make  gentlemen  in  this 
sense  of  efficient  social  factors  must  be  evident  when  we 
remember  that  juvenile  criminality  is  not  less  prevalent 
among  our  American  school  graduates  than  amongst  for- 
eigners, that  the  personal  factors  in  our  severest  polit- 
ical problems  are  graduates  of  our  schools  and  that, 
popular  indifference  to  honesty  of  action,  integrity  of 
word,  civic  honor  and  domestic  purity  is  accompanied  by 
growing  general  intelligence. 

Our  vocational  traming  has  been  divorced  from  the 
greater  realities  of  life.  Second,  we  have  sought  to  meet 
the  demands  of  an  increasingly  complex  civilization  by 
vocational  training.  This  is  a  wise  recognition  of  obliga- 
tions of  service  to  society,  of  the  moral  obligation  of  every 
one  to  do  his  work  and  to  do  it  well.  We  can  scarcely 
over-estimate  the  values  of  vocational  training.  Its  dan- 
ger lies  either  in  a  narrow  emphasis  or  in  a  wrong  aim. 
Popular  emphasis  is  distinctly  industrial,  trying  to  make 
full  men  by  making  efficient  hands.  Vocational  training 
can  easily  mean  the  exploitation  of  youth  for  the  sake 
of  factories  and  dividends.  The  aim  is  wrong,  too,  when 
vocational  training  means  emphasis  on  technical  abilities 
as  ends  in  themselves.  It  is  of  value  only  as  it  seeks  to 
develop  persons  in  efficiency  to  do  their  best  work  in  the 
world. 

Moral  education  remains  a  problem  because  it  has  never 
been  attempted  in  any  large  and  comprehensive  manner 
during  modem  times.     The  educational  world  is  afraid 


168  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

of  it  because  of  its  apparent  indefiniteness.  It  cannot  be 
counted  and  it  is  intangible;  what  place  could  it  have  in 
this  age  of  corporeal  realities?  The  educator  who  is 
up-to-date  must  be  a  man  of  business,  "  practical,"  iron- 
minded.  If,  under  the  pressure  of  the  public  will,  he 
recognizes  moral  education,  it  becomes  a  segregated  part 
of  his  mechanical  scheme  of  things.  His  mind  is  fixed 
on  its  schedules,  texts  and  tests. 

MORAL    TRAINING    NOT    YET    TRIED 

Moral  education  has  never  had  a  real  trial  in  our  mod- 
em schools.  Almost  all  the  practice  that  has  come  under 
that  name  has  been  no  more  than  instruction  in  ethics  or 
lessons  on  moral  concepts  and  ideals.  Educational  in- 
stitutions have  been  offering  courses  of  studies  on  morals 
instead  of  training  and  adjusting  pupils  as  moral  per- 
sons. There  are  numerous  text-books  on  the  virtues,  de- 
scribing, analyzing  and  usually  disintegrating  them ;  there 
are  numerous  syllabi  classifying  the  virtues,  directing  and 
planning  just  when  Truthfulness,  Justice,  Honesty,  and 
Helpfulness  shall  be  taught,  but  scarcely  one  comprehen- 
sive outline  of  education  as  a  moral  process  for  moral 
persons.  With  all  these  schemes  it  might  well  be  supposed 
that  children  would  come  from  many  schools  as  familiar 
with  the  virtues  as  with  the  mountains,  rivers,  capes  and 
bays  of  their  own  country  and,  also,  that,  just  as  these 
latter  are  but  names  until  encountered  in  experience,  so 
might  the  virtues  lack  all  significance  and  reality.  Fur- 
ther, just  as  the  school  geography  becomes  but  an  insuffi- 
cient and,  often,  a  dangerous  guide  to  a  man  lost  amongst 
the  very  mountains  he  memorized  in  youth,  so  mere  nom- 
inal familiarity  with  the  topography  of  the  realm  of  vir- 
tue would  be  valueless  to  those  who  seek  to  make  their 
way  therein. 

Moral  training  has  been  hindered  hi/  pedagogical  mech- 
anisms.    The  multiplication   of  devices   to   teach   things 


THE  SCHOOLS  AND  MORAL  TRAINING      159 

about  morals  is  probably  due  to  the  natural  demand  for 
the  easiest  way  of  doing  things.  It  is  part  of  the  tend- 
ency toward  routine.  The  teacher  who  is  confronted  with 
the  broad  and  appalling  task  of  the  adequate  education 
of  a  number  of  persons  as  moral  beings,  will  welcome  the 
conveniently  arranged  syllabus  which  relieves  him  of  so 
much  anxious  thought  and  makes  the  task  of  moral  edu- 
cation as  simple  as  a  drill  in  arithmetic.  Such  devices 
tend,  however,  to  keep  teachers  satisfied  with  blind  obedi- 
ence to  schedules ;  they  move  around  in  sawdust  circuits 
and  offer  pretenses  of  education;  they  become  blind  to 
the  breath  and  dignity  of  their  real  tasks.  They  cannot 
afford  leadership  and  their  dismal  efforts  have  only  dis- 
credited moral  education. 

Dismtegrating  moral  character.  It  will  mean  a  seri- 
ous set-back  to  educational  progress  if  we  yield  to  the 
notion  that  moral  education  is  a  separable  part  of  educa- 
tion, that  it  can  be  segregated,  departmentalized  and  made 
the  duty  of  a  specialist,  so  that  any  others  would  have  no 
responsibility  in  regard  thereto.  This  is  the  fatally  fac- 
ile method  of  settling  the  moral  problem:  push  it  into 
a  pigeonhole,  appropriately  labeled,  and  place  some  one 
in  charge  of  it.  If  "  Morals  "  becomes  a  separate  study 
in  the  school  that  separation  is  the  most  impressive  lesr- 
son  we  can  possibly  give  as  to  its  unreality.  If  you  can 
separate  your  morals  from  your  mathematics  then  in  later 
years  you  can  separate  your  morals  from  your  money 
making.  So  many  now  are  able  to  keep  their  ethical  con- 
ceptions in  sealed  packages  where  there  is  no  danger  of 
their  escaping  into  life  because  they  received  them  in  that 
form,  as  a  pedagogical  pack. 

The    familiarity   with    the   virtues    which    comes    from  - 
habitually  analyzing  them  breeds  only  contempt  of  them. 
A  lesson  in  which  motives  are  threshed  down  to  the  dust 
and  ethical  situations  studied  as  one  dissects  a  flower  may 
easily  breed  prigs  who  know  all  about  the  virtues  but 


160  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

are  innocent  of  entertaining  any  of  them.  There  is  no 
virtue  in  a  memorized  catalogue  of  virtues  any  more  than 
there  is  any  religion  in  a  series  of  scriptural  passages. 
Here  we  meet  the  old  fallacy  of  substituting  the  symbol 
for  the  experience,  imagining  that  a  child  grasps  com- 
parative values  because  he  throws  his  head  back  and 
sings  that  "  two  times  two  are  four."  He  does  not  use 
the  formula  when  he  meets  the  experience;  and  he  does 
not  carefully  repeat  "  Honesty  is  the  best  policy  "  when 
he  sees  his  neighbor's  peach  within  reach.  Indeed,  in  the 
instance  of  this  maxim,  he  might  be  even  less  moral  if 
he  repeated  it  and  were  controlled  by  the  statement. 

Now  this  does  not  mean  that  there  is  no  value  in  the 
direct  teaching  of  ethics,  but  that  (1)  no  systematized 
scheme  of  teaching  virtues  or  goodnesses  will  ever  make 
good  men  or  train  them  in  virtuous  lives,  (2)  that  immoral 
results  are  likely  to  come  from  separating  morals  into 
special  courses,  special  teachers  and  departments,  and 
(3)  that  moral  education  must  be  the  aim  of  the  whole 
school,  dominating  every  teacher,  guiding  every  course 
and  touching  all  the  pupil's  life. 

DIFFERENCES     BETWEEN    DEFINITIONS    AND    DEEDS 

The  natural  objection  raised  just  here  is,  "You  are 
throwing  us  back  into  chaos  just  when  we  are  working 
out  a  system."  Alas,  the  fallacy  of  systems  \  They  are 
the  good  that  fights  the  best ;  they  are  the  means  at  which 
men  rest  content  instead  of  going  on  to  their  ends.  The 
system  and  the  syllabus  are  the  teacher's  guides  and  never 
the  pupil's  goal.  They  are  a  good  deal  like  railroad  time- 
tables, something  one  can  go  by  but  not  go  on  or  in. 
Present  practice  in  moral  education  faces  the  danger  of 
mistaking  the  time-table  for  the  journey.  It  is  a  good 
thing  to  work  out  syllabi;  they  should  aid  teachers  par- 
ticularly in  recognizing  the  moral  significances  of  current 
lessons  and  in  determining  varying  emphases  on  moral 


THE  SCHOOLS  AND  MORAL  TRAINING      161 

meanings  according  to  the  life-development  of  each  pupil. 
Further,  they  will  have  value  as  the  social  and  introspec- 
tive powers  develop ;  in  the  years  from  sixteen  on  youths 
can  often  discuss  ethics  without  prejudice  to  moral  con- 
duct. But,  as  means  of  education,  they  defeat  the  moral 
purpose  by  substituting  discussions  for  deeds  and  anal- 
ysis for  activity. 

There  may  be  a  capital  difference  between  teaching 
morals  and  moral  training.  Our  emphasis  on  the  task  of 
character  development  will  be  a  disappointment  to  the^ 
methodologists  who  are  concerned  only  with  the  content 
of  the  curriculum.  We  are  more  concerned  with  the  ef- 
fect, and  that  brings  into  consideration  all  the  causes 
which  will  produce  the  desired  effect.  We  need  often  to 
remind  ourselves  of  the  perfectly  obvious  fact  that  lessons 
about  morals  have  no  special  power  to  make  moral  people. 
The  analysis  of  the  virtues  is  not  a  virtuous  act  and  mem- 
ory catalogues  of  moral  attributes  could  be  the  mental 
possession  of  an  immoral  life.  Some  excellent  definitions 
of  morality  have  come  from  poor  demonstrators.  In 
other  words,  the  task  is  not  to  be  accomplished  by  courses 
in  ethics.  These  may  have  some  advantages  especially  in 
developing  a  certain  needed  awareness  of  moral  situations 
and  their  possibilities.  But  even  that  has  its  dangers  in 
developing  undue  consciousness  of  action. 

Because  the  democratic  life  is  a  moral  experience  train- 
ing for  that  life  must  include  the  essential  elements  of  that 
moral  experience.  We  are  beginning  to  realize  that  so- 
cial living  is  a  moral  experience,  that  it  makes  tremendous 
demands  on  the  moral  life  and  that  the  single  great  and 
appalling  deficiency  of  present  plans  of  education  lies  in 
neglect  to  train  that  life.  Therefore  we  see  a  quickened 
and  spreading  interest  in  what  is  called  moral  education. 
But  there  is  little  hope  that  we  shall  accomplish  any- 
thing worth  while  so  long  as  we  go  on  playing  the  old 
tricks  over  with  new  variations.     We  have  been  unwilling 


168  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

to  think  our  problem  out.  We  are  demanding  new 
courses  in  morals,  new  "  codes  of  morality,"  new  sets  of 
commandments,  new  syllabi  for  the  guidance  of  teachers. 
We  hear  of  prizes  offered  for  "  codes  of  morality  "  as 
though  the  great  need  was  that  of  defining  right  con- 
duct, as  though  the  world  had  just  discovered  morality 
and  needed  to  have  it  digested  and  codified.  Shades  of 
Aristotle!  Why  add  to  the  o'er-topping  mountains  of 
definitions?  A  feeling  of  sadness  at  the  futility  of  it  all 
comes  over  one  when  the  long  lines  of  books  on  ethics  are 
surveyed.  Is  it  sloth  or  is  it  blindness  that  leads  us  on, 
generation  after  generation,  following  the  faith  that  de- 
fining a  virtue  is  the  way  to  obtaining  it,  hoping  that 
courses  on  disintegrated  virtues  would  give  us  the  power 
of  the  virtuous  life.'^  ^ 

There  is  only  one  pathway  here ;  it  is  the  same  as  that 
followed  by  educational  science  in  all  other  departments 
and  phases  of  life,  the  pathway  of  directed  experience. 
The  abilities  come  only  through  their  exercise  and  dis- 
cipline. School-training  will  have  moral  effects  in  the 
degree  that  it  is  recognized  by  those  who  train  as  con- 
stituting steadily  a  series  of  moral  situations.  It  will 
train  for  the  life  of  democracy  as  it  practices  democracy 
in  the  social  relationships  of  the  school  group,  the  rela- 
tionships between  all  the  members  of  the  society  composed 
of  pupils,  teachers,  supervisors,  principals,  board  and 
other  officers. 

Perhaps  the  problem  is  difficult  because  it  is  so  very 
simple.  It  would  help  if  we  were  to  forget  all  our  dis- 
cussions and  seek  to  state  simply  just  what  we  expect, 
particularly  from  the  schools,  as  to  moral  effects.  Is  it 
not  this,  that  our  boys  and  girls  acquire  right  social  con- 
duct.'^ Supposing,  for  the  sake  of  simplicity,  the  prob- 
lem is  transferred  to  another  and  more  limited  sphere; 

1  See  "  Virtue  and  the  Virtues  "  by  Gep.  A.  Coe,  in  Religious  Edvn 
cation  for  Jan.,  1912,  Vol.  VI,  No.  6. 


THE  SCHOOLS  AND  MORAL  TRAINING      163 

what  would  we  do  if  we  desired  right  musical  conduct? 
The  expression  is  not  very  exact;  but  let  it  pass  for  the 
sake  of  illustration.  Modern  methods  in  teaching  music 
comprise  at  least  these  elements :  creative  action,  constant 
repetition,  discovery  of  meaning,  development  of  judg- 
ment, taste  and  discrimination,  introduction  to  ideal  lead- 
ers and  their  work,  the  development  of  feeling  and  senti- 
ment. The  process  seems  to  be  first  action,  then  defini- 
tion and  illumination  and  then  idealization,  action  con- 
tinuing through  and  giving  reality  to  all  and  securing 
the  development  of  powers.  The  process  results  in  abil- 
ities, habits  and  tendencies.  Now  the  desirable  results 
in  moral  training  might  be  stated  in  quite  similar  terms, 
provided  the  experience  be  considered  as  a  social  one. 

The  largest  leverage  in  social,  moral  training  is  the 
control  of  conduct.  It  must  be  control  of  behavior,  not 
control  of  mechanism.  The  principal  element  in  moral 
training  is  action,  action  repeated,  action  more  and  more 
easily  willed  until  it  becomes  involuntary.  Actions  make 
character ;  they  determine  ideals  and  they  interpret  ideals. 
They  create  ideals  for  others.  The  school  not  only  can 
control  social  action  but  it  must  do  so  if  it  is  to  carry 
on  its  ordinary  work.  It  establishes  standards  of  action 
and  thus  sets  up  ideals.  It  demands  adherence  to  those 
standards  and  thus  it  develops  habits.  But  often  it  has 
been  thinking  of  these  regulations  of  conduct  purely  from 
the  disciplinary  point  of  view,  with  regard  to  their  rela- 
tion to  the  mechanisms  of  class-rooms  and  teaching.  It 
is  still,  apparently,  commonly  unaware  that  such  controls 
of  conduct  are  teaching.  The  behavior  of  children  is 
really  determined  in  three  like  ways :  through  directed 
action  in  the  learning  institution,  the  school,  through 
imitative  action  in  the  nurtural  institution,  the  home,  and 
through  free,  social  action  in  the  playing  group. 

For  moral  purposes  conduct  must  he  creative.  This 
means  not  simply  making  things  but  planning  and  realiz- 


164  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

ing  purposes  through  chosen  organizations  and  activities. 
This  implies  two  elements,  ideal  enterprises  and  democratic 
self-control.  Surely  it  is  sufficient  to  suggest  the  value 
of  these  two  elements  in  developing  moral  character.  In- 
creasingly the  young  must  realize  the  school,  not  as  an 
imposed  institution,  but  as  a  social  enterprise  in  which 
they  all  have  a  share.  This  can  come  about  only  as  spe- 
cial enterprises  are  developed,  as  they  pass  into  student 
initiative  and  as  they  all  merge  into  a  general  sense  of  the 
school  as  a  social  enterprise.  This  process  develops  pow- 
ers of  control  and  makes  it  possible  to  throw  increasingly 
responsibility  for  school  life,  "  government  '^  in  a  wise 
sense,  on  the  members  of  this  society,  the  students. 

Certainly  experience  of  this  kind  is  necessary  in  prepa- 
ration for  citizenship.  As  it  is,  the  child  on  leaving  school 
is  suddenly  thrust  from  a  condition  of  abject  tutelage  into 
one  of  unlimited  personal  freedom.  He  has  had  no  train- 
ing in  controls,  no  experience  in  self-direction  as  a  mem- 
ber of  a  free  group.  Little  wonder  that  we  have  juvenile 
delinquency  when  we  have  these  lads  and  lasses  plunged 
into  life  with  no  schooling  for  life.  Some  steps  have  been 
taken  to  meet  this  need  by  the  organization  in  the  class 
rooms  of  model  cities  and  junior  republics.  The  purpose 
is  good;  but  the  plan  does  not  meet  the  need.  The  pu- 
pils need  self-direction  in  the  normal  activities  of  school 
life.  Their  training  for  moral  living  must  be  by  experi- 
ence in  the  morals,  the  social  relationships  and  duties 
of  the  school  life  itself,  for  this  is  their  real  world. 

Ethics  rise  out  of  moral  experience.  Given  the  ex- 
perience of  right  action  its  meaning  usually  takes  care 
of  itself.  Whatever  definitions  may  be  necessary  should 
follow  the  deeds.  But  definitions  are  seldom  necessary. 
No  good  fables  need  a  tag.  There  comes  the  time,  in  the 
high-school  years,  when  youth  asks  its  questions  about 
conduct.  The  desire  to  analyze  situations  may  be 
indulged  where  the  situations  have  gone  before.     Then 


THE  SCHOOLS  AND  MORAL  TRAINING      165 

moral  training  is  possible  through  the  discussion  of  life's 
real  situations.  For  example,  let  high-school  people  dis- 
cuss their  possible  occupations,  let  them  discuss  the  voca- 
tions and  then  go  on  to  discuss  training  for  them.  These 
elements  are  parts  of  real  experience.  They  would  lead 
to  the  discussion  of  the  ethical  situations  involved.  It 
would  be  a  simple  matter  to  develop  a  series  of  useful 
discussions  on  the  choice  of  life  work  and  on  the  social 
functions  and  ethical  standards  of  different  occupations 
and   professions. 

Idealization  is  the  dynannic  of  moral  conduct.  There 
is  no  moral  situation  concerning  which  the  school  cannot 
reveal  controlling  ideals.  They  are  presented  in  varied 
forms,  through  persons,  their  actions,  social  situations 
and  movements,  and  moral  sentimients  or  ideals.  They 
appeal  to  youth's  faith  in  life,  that  one  can  make  of  it 
what  he  will.  He  believes  in  heroic  determination.  The 
splendor  of  heroic  character  makes  its  alluring  appeal. 
While  not  so  immediately  determinative  of  action  as  are 
social  habits  and  incentives  it  serves  to  color  and  often 
govern  action  under  social  stimulus.  It  sustains  good 
habits  and  helps  to  inhibit  bad  ones.  It  is  difficult  to 
imagine  any  person  with  a  consciousness  of  life  teaching 
in  a  public  school  and  avoiding  the  revelation  of  life's 
ideals  in  heroic  persons  and  inspiring  situations.  History 
is  a  dry  category  of  dull  facts  without  them.  If  "  history 
is  philosophy  teaching  by  example "  the  examples  are 
commonly  wonderfully  inspiring.  Through  history  and 
literature  the  door  is  wide  open  to  ideals  in  persons,  his- 
torical and  fictitious.  But  the  door  is  open  also  in  all 
the  sciences.  Huxley,  Darwin,  Newton,  Kepler,  Galileo, 
Wallace,  were  far  from  being  saints,  but  their  lives  preach 
devotion  to  ideals,  heroism,  courage  and  initiative.  Each 
in  their  own  specialty  is  part  of  the  child's  scientific 
heritage.  How  can  one  teach  mathematics  and  ignore 
Newton  and  Kepler  or,  if  the  teacher  were  really  human. 


166  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

fail  to  open  a  door  into  the  mind  of  Lewis  Carroll?  If 
he  was  truly  a  mathematician  he  would  find  those  spiritual 
worths  that  Prof.  Keyser  has  uncovered  for  us  all.^  And 
in  like  manner  with  all  the  fields  of  knowledge,  they  cluster 
about  great  persons,  souls  worthy  to  lead  our  youth  to 
greatness,  men  and  women  whom  they  can  well  idealize. 

There  is  a  tendency  to  discount  the  value  of  sentiments. 
But  one  thing  is  clear,  that  all  persons  who  think  of  life 
objectively  cherish  some  high  forms  of  sentiment,  of  ideals 
set  in  literary  beauty.  Literary  moral  maxims  have  of 
themselves  as  much  value  as  table  manners.  They  must 
be  part  of  something  else,  part  of  their  setting  and,  in 
some  measure,  part  of  experience.  They  become  sources 
of  inspiration,  they  sustain  when  opposition  presses  hard, 
they  guide  in  doubt,  they  give  us  choice  vehicles  to  convey 
encouragement  to  others.  Everything  depends  on  their 
reality.  They  cannot  be  given  to  a  class  by  an  excursion 
through  "  Gems  of  Literature,"  nor  by  means  of  an 
encyclopaedia  of  quotations,  nor  by  the  old  copy-book 
method.  They  are  discovered  as  part  of  the  experience 
of  knowing  life  through  literature,  history  and  the 
sciences.  Where  the  first  is  taught  we  learn  to  read 
souls,  the  souls  of  individuals  and  of  peoples  and  then 
there  flashes  out  here  and  there  the  shining  hope  and 
idealism  of  these  souls.  We  catch  the  gleam  and  hide 
it  in  our  own  souls.  That  is  not  a  process  that  can  be 
precisely  directed.  It  does  not  stand  alone.  It  comes 
only  when  there  is  good  teaching,  only  when  one  life 
leads  other  lives. 

There  is  nothing  new,  nothing  added  to  the  curriculum 
in  what  has  been  suggested  here.  There  is  no  need  of 
adding  anything;  the  great  need  is  that  of  interpreting 
all  in  terms  of  conduct.  Before  we  attempt  to  add 
another  subject  called  "  Morals,"  would  it  not  be  well  to 

1  See  his  illuminating  discussion  of  The  Spiritual  Significance  of 
Mathematics  in  Religious  Education,  April,  1911,  p.  384. 


THE  SCHOOLS  AND  MORAL  TRAINING      167 

see  what  can  be  accomplished  by  really  using,  for  the  ends 
of  conduct,  the  means  now  at  our  disposal? 

Once  to  see  clearly  that  the  aim  of  the  school  is  to 
train  persons  in  competent  social  living,  and  to  set  the 
school  free  for  that  purpose,  is  to  convert  the  entire 
school  process  to  moral  ends.  A  school  governed  by  such 
a  purpose  would  saturate  community  life  and  create  the 
environment  favorable  to  its  own  plans  and  cooperating 
with  its  program. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

SPIRITUAL    VALUES    IN    SCHOOL    STUDIES 

Granted  that  the  primary  purpose  of  the  school  is  a 
moral  one,  what  relation  do  the  common  studies  hold  to 
this  purpose? 

The  answer  would  be  very  simple  if  the  moral  aim 
implied  only  instruction  about  morals,  but,  since  it  involves 
a  program  of  the  development  of  social  character,  vari- 
eties of  relations  appear  at  every  point.  Any  subject 
is  related  to  the  moral  aim  of  the  school  in  the  degree 
that  it  affects  the  student's  social  attitude  and  habits. 
The  test  of  the  values  of  studies,  for  the  moral-social 
purposes,  lies  in  questions  such  as  these:  What  interpre- 
tations of  conduct  and  life  do  they  present?  What  ideals 
do  they  help  to  create?  What  motives  do  they  stimulate? 
What  social  experience  do  they  afford?  In  what  ways 
do  they  stimulate  feeling  toward  worthy  purposes?  In 
a  word,  we  ask.  In  what  ways  do  the  general  studies 
constitute  spiritual  experiences? 

Morality  is  religion  applied  to  conduct,  that  is,  it  is 
the  issue  in  behavior  of  our  view  of  social  relations  and 
the  meaning  and  value  of  life.  It  is  the  work  that  results 
from  a  faith.  All  moral  training  rests  on  some  sort  of 
an  idealizing  basis.  It  is  a  basis  formed  in  whatever 
constitutes  or  offers  a  spiritual  experience,  a  quickening 
of  the  feelings  of  joy  and  confidence  toward  life,  an  eleva- 
tion of  ideals  and  deepening  of  meanings.  The  schools 
cannot  teach  sectarian  religious  facts  but  they  can  and 
do   offer   this  basis   of  the   spiritual.     They   minister   in 

many  ways  to  the  child's  spiritual  nature.     The  reality 

168 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES  IN  SCHOOL  STUDIES      169 

and  power  of  that  ministry  is  the  measure  of  their  moral 
value. 

VALUES    IN    CIVICS 

Courses  dealing  with  practical  living  peculiarly  in- 
volve spiritual  experiences.  Civics  is  an  instance.  It 
is  the  science  of  social  organization  by  political  means ; 
therefore  it  involves  social  relations  and  duties.  In  a 
democracy  it  is  a  subject  peculiarly  rich  for  it  must 
study  the  social  mechanisms  by  which  democracy  realizes 
its  spiritual  purpose  of  the  growth  of  social  persons  and 
the  development  of  society.  The  teacher  of  vision  makes 
it  mean  vastly  more  than  the  mechanics  of  government; 
it  passes  over  into  a  study  of  persons  in  their  relations 
for  a  common  welfare.  It  emphasizes  the  importance 
of  political  organization  as  affecting  the  well-being  of 
people.  It  studies  relative  standards  of  well-being  and 
so  must  involve  questions  of  spiritual  values.  So  taught, 
the  subject  becomes  intensely  human.  It  is  no  longer  a 
matter  of  collecting  taxes  and  administering  justice  but 
a  study  of  how  a  free  people  live  together  and  effect  their 
ideals  for  the  common  good.  It  is  evidently  a  moral 
subject  since  it  must  consider  social  conduct  and,  as  it 
enlarges  into  a  vision  of  a  common  human  brotherhood 
it  becomes  really  religious.  Civics  rightly  taught  is 
simply  the  teaching  of  social  morality  on  the  wide  scale 
of  total  social  interests. 

But  even  larger  moral  values  are  possible;  this  subject 
affords  opportunity  to  apply  the  principle  that  teaching 
is  the  direction  and  organization  of  experience.  Classes 
are  easily  led  to  actually  work  on  the  problems  of  social 
living;  specific  situations  with  which  all  are  familiar  in 
the  community  become  the  objects  of  practical  service. 
A  group  of  boys  and  girls  discussing  sanitation  in  their 
neighborhood  will  discover  more  than  the  facts  revealed 
by  a  survey;  they  will  find  opportunities  for  usefulness; 


170  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

they  will  form  ideals  and  concepts  of  duty.  They  will 
practice  moral  living  and,  in  the  experience,  find  its  spir- 
itual significance. 

Still  this  may  seem  to  be  remote  from  religious  teaching. 
Of  course,  objectively  the  matter  is  clear;  all  teaching 
of  the  art  of  social  living  is  teaching  the  practice  of 
religion.  But  we  could  make  a  like  claim  for  whatever 
relates  to  conduct  in  any  form.  What  more,  then,  is 
needed?  The  motivation  of  conduct  with  religious  sanc- 
tions and  ideals.  And  these  are  precisely  the  results  that 
flow,  for  example,  from  teaching  civics  under  the  demo- 
cratic concept  in  any  adequate  fashion.  For  the  demo- 
cratic ideal  is  a  social  method  based  on  spiritual  ideals; 
it  is  the  expression  of  the  principle  for  which  Jesus  lived, 
that  each  life  was  each  man's  chance  to  help  the  world 
to  larger  life.  Democracy,  studied  in  the  concrete  as 
presented  in  civics,  reveals  a  social  situation  possible  only 
as  all  men  learn  the  way  of  common  service.  Thus  a 
definite  purpose  toward  a  life  of  service  is  established  in 
the  pupil's  mind. 

The  search  for  an  ideal  civic  life  establishes  certain 
habits  of  the  religious  mind ;  it  is  a  search  for  a  practical, 
common,  social  goodwill;  it  is  an  attempt  to  organize 
all  our  varying  interests  in  a  common  good.  It  reaches 
after  the  experience  of  a  common  brotherhood.  The 
ideals  involved  may  not  be  entirely  clear  to  the  student's 
mind,  but  the  important  thing  is  not  so  much  to  identify' 
religious  ideals  as  to  establish  the  habits  that  express 
them. 

The  social  emphasis  in  religion  has  forced  the  churches 
into  civic  interests ;  it  has  compelled  them  to  work  for 
better  civic  conditions;  surely  whatever  helps  youth  to 
a  better  social  spirit,  through  the  understanding  of  civics, 
must  be  a  direct  contribution  to  the  common  ends  which 
the  churches  and  schools  have  together  in  an  ideal  society.-^ 

1  Some  of  these  ideals  are  stated  in  such  text-books  as.  Ward  & 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES  IN  SCHOOL  STUDIES      171 


PHILOSOPHY    TEACHING    BY    EXAMPLE 

History.  Many  a  teacher  wishes,  in  view  of  the  con- 
duct of  youth,  that  time  might  be  given  to  courses  in 
the  art  of  life.  Yet  often  these  teachers  turn,  with 
weariness  of  spirit  to  their  work  in  the  greatest  of  all 
courses,  that  record  of  man's  endeavor  to  learn  the  art 
of  life  which  we  call  history.  The  very  people  who 
attempt  to  teach  right  living  by  means  of  Hebrew  history 
on  Sunday  often  are  blind  to  the  spiritual  values  in  other 
history.  This  is  not  so  much  because  of  any  artificial 
division  between  sacred  and  secular  history  as  because 
they  have  never  seen  how  either  Hebrew  or  early  Christian 
history  really  count  for  life  and  society  to-day.  When 
that  is  once  realized  all  consciousness  of  essential  differ- 
ences is  swept  away.  All  history  has  two  characteristics : 
it  is  objectively  "  philosophy  teaching  by  example,"  and, 
subjectively,  for  the  student  it  is  his  projection  into  the 
race  experience  of  learning  the  art  of  social  living. 

For  the  young  history  is  mediated  through  persons, 
through  great  lives.  Necessarily  it  lacks  synthesis ;  it 
is  polarized  about  great  persons.  They  become  leaders, 
ideals,  revelators  of  ways  of  life.  The  young  delight  in 
them.  Study  may  become  a  social  experience  of  being 
with  these  exalted  ones.  Let  no  one  object  that  such 
idealization  is  the  foe  of  scientific  accuracy.  The  danger 
lies  in  the  other  direction,  that  we  shall  imagine  we  are 
scientific  when  we  have  gathered  up  only  the  surface  facts, 
the  spatial  details  of  the  lives  of  persons  and  the  move- 
ments of  affairs.  Scientific  completeness  demands  more; 
it  demands  that  which  lives  crave,  to  know  the  feelings 
of  men,  to  see  their  motives  and  measure  their  influence; 
it  must  include  the  facts  of  the  spirit.  History  cannot 
be  taught  unless  the  pupil  is  led  to  see  the  forces  within 

Edwards,  **  Christianizing  Community  Life  "   (Associated  Press) ;  H. 
K.  Rowe,  "Society,  Its  Origin  and  Development"  (Scribners). 


172  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

men.  But  to  make  a  boy  the  worshiper  of  a  worthy 
hero  and  one  justly  appreciated  for  his  inner  life  is  to 
give  the  worshiping  life  stimuli  in  the  right  direction. 
^  To  establish  the  pupil's  will  toward  ideal  lives  is  to  make 
history  real,  vital  and  effective.  It  is  to  gather  up  the 
flood  of  the  life  of  the  past  for  the  forward  movement  of 
present  lives. 

The  light  of  personalized  ideals  is  organized  by  the 
pupil,  if  he  is  wisely  directed,  into  a  moral  consciousness 
in  history.  He  thinks,  no  longer  of  individuals  alone,  but 
of  groups,  of  persons  in  social  relations,  of  the  effect  of 
lives  on  other  lives,  of  the  consequences  of  actions  on 
the  well-being  of  all.  Without  moralizing  the  teacher 
who  sees  these  significances  can  help  the  pupil  to  discover 
them.  Then  the  pupil  enters  sympathetically  into  the 
process  which  history  records,  man's  endeavor  for  right 
and  full  life. 

But  the  essential  contribution  is  that  which  has  been 
only  hinted  at,  the  study  of  history  may  be  a  social 
experience.  The  ideal  personages,  the  thrilling  causes, 
the  splendid  situations,  when  youth's  imagination  touches 
them,  pass  from  the  past  and  the  pages  of  books  into 
living,  present  realities.  The  student  feels  himself  in  the 
moving  throng  of  other  days ;  he  shares  their  feelings ;  his 
muscles  quiver  to  act  with  them;  he  enlarges  his  area  of 
social  experience  as  he  idealizes  it.  Then  the  skillful 
teacher  directs  and  develops  this  social  experience  through 
dramatics  and  pageantry,  intensifies  its  reality,  and  clari- 
fies its  accuracy  through  wider  study.  There  are  those 
to  whom  heroes  are  very  real  for  they  have  walked  with 
them  and  learned  of  them. 

THE    SOUL    AND    SOCIETY    IN    UTERATURE 

Literature.  Here  we  stand  on  very  familiar  and  oft- 
trodden  ground.  Few  have  thought  with  any  care  regard- 
ing the  work  of  the  schools  without  realizing  that  while 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES  IN  SCHOOL  STUDIES      173 

the  study  of  literature  marks  its  high  point  of  spiritual 
possibilities  it  is  also  its  low  tide  of  pedagogical  and 
social  efficiency.  English  is  the  one  required  course  prac- 
tically all  through  the  high  school  and  it  is  the  one 
toward  which  the  students  most  unanimously  have  an 
emphatic  aversion.  It  is  the  bete  noir  to  all  save  the  few 
who  manage  to  get  beyond  the  mechanics  of  teaching  and 
discover  joy  for  themselves  in  the  material  studied.  The 
reasons  are  very  simple :  First,  they  do  not  study  English 
Literature;  they  study  things  about  it,  its  history, 
language  forms  and  its  creators.  They  are  drilled  in 
descriptions  and  dissections ;  they  are  invited  to  admire 
that  which  they  are  required  to  analyze,  an  impossible 
combination.  Second,  the  logical  processes  are  inverted; 
the  teacher  expects  love  for  literature  to  grow  out  of  its 
facts ;  on  the  contrary,  a  desire  for  the  facts  would  grow 
out  of  the  love  quickened  through  an  experience  of 
literature.  The  interest  in  an  author's  life  follows  a 
long  acquaintance  with  his  work.  We  have  been  pur- 
suing wrong  ends,  developing  literary  critics.  We  have 
constructed  courses  for  the  high  school  in  the  anatomy  of 
literature,  for  the  college  in  its  pathology,  as  though  we 
were  training  its  physicians.  And  when  the  lower  schools 
would  fain  respond  to  the  student's  hunger  for  the  joys 
of  literature  they  find  themselves  hampered  by  the  college- 
entrance  requirements. 

The  tragedy  of  it  all  lies  in  the  fact  that  the  lower 
schools  are  using  the  years  when  youth's  tastes  are  being 
determined  not  only  in  failing  to  quicken  literary  appre- 
ciation but  in  developing  positive  aversions.  It  is  not 
strange  that  the  people  prefer  the  tawdry  magazine  and 
the  defiling  newsprint  when  they  have  been  told  that  the 
path  to  real  literature  lies  through  the  desert  of  dry 
facts,  through  the  wearying  analyses  and  the  dust  of 
the  specialist's  workshop. 

But  for  the  purposes  of  democracy  the  most  significant 


174  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

values  lie  in  the  peculiarly  vital  social  experiences  that 
are  involved  in  the  love  of  literature.  No  one  can  enjoy 
a  worthy  book  alone,  for  the  enjoyment  is  pleasure  born 
of  the  contact  with  another  spirit  and  commonly  involves 
idealized  contacts  with  the  beings  created  by  the  author. 
Literature  is  an  open  door  into  fellowship  with  all  the 
great,  with  those  who  have  actually  lived  in  the  flesh  and 
those  who  have  been  bom  of  the  imagination.  They  wait 
to  walk  with  us.  That  which  society  has  stored  for  our 
enriching  becomes  easily  and  immediately  ours.  Such 
communion  and  stimulus  is  only  one  side  of  social  fellow- 
ship, but  it  is  a  most  valuable  side.  Young  lives 
especially  need  the  stimulus  of  wiser  minds  and  richer 
hearts;  they  have  a  right  to  the  leadership  of  the  great; 
they  have  a  right  to  belong,  not  only  to  the  society  of 
the  passing  hour,  but  to  the  fellowship  of  all  time,  and  to 
know  its  joy  and  strength. 

Literature  is  the  means  by  which  the  democracy  of  the 
spirit  is  open  to  all;  it  is  the  means  by  which  we  have 
communion  with  the  soul  of  all.  This  is  its  vital  spirit. 
Here  "  spirit  to  spirit  may  speak." 

Here  lies  surely  one  of  the  large  spiritual  oppor- 
tunities of  the  school.  If  we  could  but  hold  clear  the 
distinction  between  the  letter  and  the  life !  Literature  is 
a  spirit  of  life  which  takes  form  in  letters;  it  does  not 
consist  in  them,  it  only  uses  them  as  a  means  of  revelation 
and  communication.  To  know  its  ways  is  to  enter  the 
society  of  all  those  who  have  enriched  the  world  with 
enduring  thoughts,  to  hear  the  songs  of  those  who  have 
given  us  new  heart,  to  catch  the  vision  of  those  who  have 
not  been  afraid  of  light,  to  grasp  the  hands  of  those  who 
have  not  feared  to  walk  alone,  in  mist  or  fog,  in  face 
of  foe  or  doubts.  It  is  to  enlarge  one's  personal  world. 
It  is  to  have  the  power  of  banishing  the  rattling  street 
and  drawing  within  the  magic  circle  of  the  evening  lamp 
the  calm  face  of  Socrates,  the  sparkling  eyes  of  Cellini, 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES  IN  SCHOOL  STUDIES      175 

the  saturnine  grin  of  Cervantes,  the  cynical  smile  of 
Carlyle,  the  human  sympathy  of  Browning,  Dickens, 
Thackeray,  Mrs.  Gaskell  —  time  fails  to  tell  the  innumer- 
able company  that  wait  our  silent  invitation. 

Such  a  society  is  very  real.  Habituation  in  its  ways 
develops  familiarity  with  its  ideals,  its  language  and  its 
customs.  The  love  of  good  literature  is  a  high  social 
experience  and  no  one  knows  how  to  read  a  worthy  book 
until  the  worth  sought  is  just  this  contact  with  persons, 
with  them  in  a  degree  that  grows  in  reality  and  intimacy 
until  the  page  seems  to  fade  and  the  spiritual  becomes 
the  only  reality.  'Not  only  is  such  experience  possible 
to  youth ;  it  is  their  right ;  it  is  our  social  necessity. 

AH  this  involves  the  conversion  of  the  teaching  of 
literature  into  an  experience  in  literature.  Surely  this 
is  precisely  what  we  are  doing  with  all  school  studies ;  they 
pass  from  descriptions  about  facts  to  the  facts  them- 
selves as  life  realities. 

Those  who  are  sighing  for  an  opportunity  to  teach  the 
Bible  in  the  public  schools  have  overlooked  the  fact  that 
a  thorough  acquaintance  with  the  masterpieces  of  English 
prose  and  poetry  of  the  last  three  centuries  would  either 
give  directly  or  would  lead  to  all  the  biblical  knowledge 
that  would  be  definitely  useful  to  their  lives. ^  This  does 
not  imply  that  direct  study  is  without  value,  but  surely 
the  values  of  biblical  material  do  not  depend  on  whether 
they  are  found  in  books  or  bound  in  limp  leather. 

Language  studies  have  their  spiritual  values,  not  only 
as  the  doors  into  literatures  and  the  means  of  enriching 
the  significance  of  our  own  literature,  but  as  revelators 
of  the  inner  lives  of  other  peoples.  They  bring  close  to 
us  those  who  are  separated  by  language.  They  break 
down  our  prejudices  and  broaden  our  sympathies  and 
appreciations.     Race    prejudices    are    possible    only    in 

1  See,  e.g.,  the  many  works  on  Browning,  also  such  books  as  "  The 
Bible  in  Shakespeare,"  W.  A.  Burgess. 


176  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

ignorance   of   the    spiritual   life    of   other   peoples.     Our 
derisive  phrases  shame  us  when  we  know  their  souls. 

Mathematics  may  make  moral  and  spiritual  contribu- 
tions. What  can  be  more  impressive  than  its  universality, 
the  sweep  of  its  higher  laws.'^  Reverence,  humility  and 
some  sense  of  or  desire  for  harmony  with  the  universe 
comes  when  the  student  goes  far  enough  in  this  subject. 
But,  for  the  schools,  the  more  immediate  values  appear 
in  the  methods  of  teaching  the  lower  branches.  To-day 
it  is  held  in  close  relations  to  real  life;  it  so  penetrates 
everyday  experiences  that  it  involves  definite  moral  inter- 
ests in  human  relations  and  behavior.  When  problems 
deal  with  food-distribution,  health-statistics,  interests, 
rents  and  wages,  while  the  teacher  does  not  need  to  tag 
a  moral,  the  pupil  is  always  ready  to  discuss  the  social 
rights  and  duties  that  are  involved.  It  is  not  enough 
that  young  people  learn  how  to  calculate  the  profits  on 
a  transaction ;  they  must  be  able  to  discern  all  its  impor- 
tant elements,  to  think  of  it  in  its  entirety  and  especially 
in  its  social  relations.  Where  there  is  no  consciousness 
of  conduct,  under  social  relations,  any  efficiencies  acquired 
may  be  only  those  of  the  enemies  of  society.  Meanwhile 
habituation  in  exactitude  is  no  small  discipline  of  the 
soul  because  it  involves  real  experiences  both  in  thought 
and  in  action.  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  call  attention 
to  a  less  important  but  still  quite  valuable  possibility  in 
mathematics,  the  teaching  of  the  current  principles  of 
commercial  honesty  and  business  integrity.  Such  social 
standards  are  surely  a  part  of  the  curriculum  of  the 
school  if  its  purpose  is  to  prepare  pupils  for  social 
living. 

CHOOSING    A    VOCATION 

Vocational  guidance  studies;  these  often  consist  in 
courses  planned  to  survey  the  different  occupations,  to 
reveal  their  social  functions  and  to  aid  in  selection  of 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES  IN  SCHOOL  STUDIES      177 

vocation.  Thej  are  predicated  on  great  moral  concepts, 
such  as  the  duty  of  work  in  order  to  play  our  part  in 
society,  the  duty  of  choice  under  motives  of  service  and 
the  duty  of  fullness  of  cooperation  with  all  the  work  of 
society.  In  the  discussion  of  the  various  callings  their 
ethical  standards  and  their  social  relations  become  very 
clear  to  the  minds  of  students.  Pupils  may  gather  the 
codes  of  professions  and  callings  so  far  as  they  have 
been  codified,^  and  they  may  endeavor  to  discover  the 
current  principles  or  rules  in  other  cases.  These  codes 
furnish  the  basis  for  discussions  that  are  never  lacking 
in  interest.  The  discovery  of  the  existence  or  the  lack 
of  moral  rules  opens  up  the  whole  field  of  human  relations 
in  the  trades  and  callings.  Scarcely  anywhere  else  is  it 
possible  to  find  interest  as  keen,  participation  as  complete 
as  in  groups  of  high-school  students  discussing  this  two- 
fold subject:  what  occupations  should  we  choose  and  what 
are  the  rules  of  the  game  in  these  occupations?  Further 
a  valuable  moral  contribution  is  made  as  the  school 
actually  aids  the  pupil  in  making  a  wise,  suitable  choice 
as  to  his  life-work.  Given  teachers  and  guides  conscious 
of  the  issues  involved,  with  imagination  seeing  the  youth 
going  out  into  the  world  of  work,  it  becomes  a  spiritual 
experience  to  consider  life's  opportunities.  The  total 
attitude  toward  the  world  may  be  determined  here. 
Seriousness  is  natural  to  youth  at  this  time  when  he 
thinks  of  occupation;  it  constitutes  his  great  social 
puberty  initiation.  He  may  find  it  a  spiritual  experience, 
a  time  of  forming  high  purposes  to  play  his  part  nobly 
and  well,  to  give  a  full  and  rich  life  to  his  day. 

Industrial  training  may  have  spiritual  values.  Such 
training  is  very  closely  associated  with  vocational  guidance 
and  choice.     But  in  the  actual  hand  work  in  shops  new 

1  As,  e.g.,  by  the  American  Medical  Association,  the  various  Bar 
Associations  and  the  Rotary  Club.  All  these  may  be  obtained  from 
the  respective  local  representatives. 


178  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

possibilities  appear.  They  arise  in  the  peculiar  relation- 
ships which  here  develop  between  instructors  and  workers ; 
they  come  into  a  common  field,  on  a  common  plane,  work- 
ing together.  The  informality  and  freedom  of  the  shop 
with  its  close  contacts  gives  opportunity  for  the  use  of 
personal  influence  and  leadership.  Other  values  appear 
as  the  shop  experience  calls  out  powers  of  discrimination, 
of  foresight  and  will  in  the  selection  of  objects  of  work 
and  materials  to  be  used.  These  are  forms  of  will  develop- 
ment and  motor  control.  They  throw  the  pupil  on  his 
own  selfhood;  they  call  on  him  to  weigh,  choose  and 
initiate  conduct  under  conditions  very  like  those  which 
prevail  in  everyday  life.  Such  values  are  easily  lost  where 
the  school  regards  industrial  training  simply  as  a  means 
of  training  mill  hands  and  factory  operatives. 

Hygiene.  Here  the  moral  values  are  evident;  the 
religious  ones  are  not  less.  When  we  consider  the  life 
handicap  of  disease,  the  spiritual  conflict  that  many  wage 
simply  because  of  unnecessary  loads  on  the  body  one  is 
tempted  to  place  this  subject  first  in  the  category  of 
values.  Who  can  live  aright  with  others  who  is  not  right 
in  himself?  Who  can  live  the  life  of  devotion  to  the 
common  good  whose  goodness  harbors  dirt  and  disease? 
And,  still  more  fundamental,  the  life  of  the  spirit  rests 
so  largely  on  these  foundations  that  touch  the  earth.  It 
is  hard  to  live  a  holy  life  without  a  whole  life;  every 
strain  carried  by  the  will  on  account  of  unnecessary 
physical  disabilities  draws  off  from  the  power  needed  for 
life's  preater  purposes.  The  program  of  democratic  liv- 
ing calls  for  the  "  keen  joy  of  living,"  for  strong  and  sup- 
ple muscles,  for  clear  minds  in  clean  bodies,  for  the  free- 
dom and  vigor  of  the  healthy  life. 

Most  of  all,  social  dutv  emphasizes  the  moral  and 
spiritual  value  of  the  teaching  of  hygiene.  Personal 
hv^iene  is  only  a  form  of  social  hygiene;  health  is 
desirable  because  one  is  a  member  of  a  larger  body  which 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES  IN  SCHOOL  STUDIES      179 

not  only  needs  our  full  powers  but  must  be  shielded  from 
ills  we  might  disseminate.  That  leads  to  the  study  of 
community  hygiene  as  a  social  duty,  to  the  means  by 
which  we  may  cooperate  to  make  this  world  a  healthy 
place  to  live  in,  constituting  an  environment  positively 
counting  for  joy  and  goodness. 

Personal  hygiene  is  a  splendid  means  of  teaching  social 
duty  under  spiritual  ideals.  Much  of  the  teaching  of 
this  subject  has  been  highly  individualistic.  It  has  often 
tended  toward  morbid  self-consciousness  especially  where 
undue  emphasis  has  been  thrown  on  the  aspect  called  sex- 
hygiene.  All  instruction  in  this  special  aspect  should  be 
merged  in  general  hygiene.  The  facts  of  the  sex  life  do 
not  need  the  impress  of  singularity  by  specialization  in 
youth;  they  need  integrating  in  the  normal  ways  of  life; 
they  need  to  become  part  of  one's  thought  of  society. 
But  this  does  not  lessen  the  importance  of  instruction  in 
the  facts  of  sex  and  training  in  the  controlled  sexual  life. 
The  important  consideration  is  that  it  shall  not  be  segre- 
gated from  life,  and,  still  more,  that  it  shall  not  be 
divorced  from  its  social  significances. 

Certain  simple  facts  must  be  faced  regarding  the  teach- 
ing of  the  laws  of  sex-hygiene.  They  are :  that  the  foun- 
dations of  all  social  well-being  lie  in  physical  well-being, 
that  immeasurable  wretchedness,  suffering  and  social  loss 
result  from  offenses  against  the  laws  of  sex  and  repro- 
duction, that  much  of  this  is  due  to  ignorance  and  to 
partial  or  mistaken  knowledge,  that  parents  do  not  teach 
their  children  but  permit  them  to  acquire  information  from 
misleading  and  polluted  sources,  that  the  church  has 
neglected  this  field  of  teaching  and,  in  any  case,  would 
reach  only  a  fraction  of  the  youth  population,  and  that 
the  public  schools  have  the  knowledge,  the  texts,  the 
facilities  and  the  access  to  youth  necessary.  Let  no  one 
ask,  why  impart  any  information.?^  Children  are  not 
remaining  in   blissful   ignorance  —  even   admitting   that 


180  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

ignorance  has  any  elements  of  bliss  —  for  the  street  and 
the  school-yard  companions  are  their  teachers ;  they  know 
much  more  than  almost  any  parent  suspects.  The  sad 
fact  is  that  they  know  so  much  that  is  not  true  and  so 
much  with  vicious  emphases. 

Four  things  have  to  be  held  in  mind  as  to  the  work 
of  the  schools  in  moral  training  in  this  particular  field. 
First,  that  the  purpose  is  conduct.  Courses  in  personal 
and  social  hygiene  are  not  designed  to  satisfy  curiosity ; 
they  are  intended  to  stimulate  toward  right  living.  Light 
thrown  on  the  physical  facts  of  life  is  for  purposes  of 
leadership.  Second,  distinguish  between  the  pathology  of 
this  subject  and  the  plain  clean  facts  which  make  for 
health  and  social  ideals.  On  the  point  under  discussion 
two  things  are  to  be  taught,  how  life  begins  and  how  it 
is  maintained  in  health.  Both  are  only  parts  of  the 
entire,  embracing  subject  of  physical  well-being  and  effi- 
ciency in  which  this  particular  subject  must  be  merged. 
The  facts  on  the  beginnings  of  life  are  a  normal  part  of 
the  subject  of  biology;  they  can  be  taught  so  that  it  is 
as  simple  and  natural  for  the  youth  to  know  the  biological 
facts  regarding  himself  as  to  know  those  regarding  any 
other  living  organism.  The  maintenance  of  right  habits 
of  sex  ought  never  to  be  thrown  out  into  a  consciousness 
separate  from  general  health  and  social  duty.  The  third 
essential  is  that  this  subject  shall  be  taught  only  by 
regular  teachers,  scientifically  qualified,  trained  not  only 
in  the  biological  and  physiological  laws  but  also  so  trained 
that  they  will  teach  the  subject  with  reference  to  social 
conduct.  They  are  teaching  in  the  light  of  the  next 
generation;  they  must  have  in  mind  the  making  of  the 
democracy  of  the  future.  The  fourth  essential  consid- 
eration is  that  no  amount  of  information  alone  will 
accomplish  the  desired  effect  unless  accompanied  by  rever- 
ence of  spirit,  by  strong  idealisms  and  by  conscious  rela- 
tions to  con4uet.     Youth  must  be  moved  to  love  the  right 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES  IN  SCHOOL  STUDIES      181 

way  of  life,  to  reverence  their  own  lives,  their  own  bodies 
and  the  lives  of  others.  To  hold  in  high  reverence  an 
ideal  of  purity  and  personality,  to  loathe  heartily  all  un- 
cleanness  will  guide  where  much  knowledge  would  fail. 
Such  idealisms  and  reverences  may  be  largely  generalized, 
young  people  may  be  trusted  to  make  their  own  special 
applications. 

But,  next  to  the  matter  of  scientific  accuracy  as  to 
the  facts  to  be  taught,  nothing  is  of  greater  importance 
than  that  the  teacher  shall  feel  that  here  one  is  dealing 
with  spiritual  issues,  that  here  one  is  developing  ideals 
and  creating  standards  of  value  for  living.  This  is  true 
because  here  we  deal  with  one  of  our  primary  and  most 
controlling  instincts,  here  we  deal  with  forces  that  will 
continue  to  control  large  areas  all  through  life,  and 
here  we  touch  that  part  of  the  life  of  feeling  where  ideals 
mount  highest,  where  the  greatest  sacrifices  may  be  made 
and  the  largest  joys  discovered.  One  has  only  to  con- 
sider for  a  moment  the  relation  of  this  phase  of  life  to 
that  which  we  call  character  to  realize  its  spiritual  im- 
portance. One  has  only  to  consider  its  importance  to 
society  to  realize  the  duty  of  a  democracy  in  this  respect 
as  to  the  education  of  the  young. 

A  few  subjects  have  been  taken  from  the  curriculum  of 
the  school  and  their  opportunities  for  moral  training,  for 
the  development  of  spiritual  values,  have  been  considered. 
Surely  they  sufficiently  illustrate  the  principle  that  teach- 
ing the  young  the  art  of  social  living  is,  in  any  of  its 
phases,  a  spiritual  process,  and  that  all  forms  of  true 
teaching,  when  addressed  to  persons  under  a  consciousness 
of  their  social  relations,  are  but  forms  of  moral  training 
and,  in  a  broad  sense,  forms  of  religious  education.  Such 
considerations  are  by  no  means  unfamiliar  to  teachers  in 
the  public   schools,   but   our  mechanical   processes,-^    our 

1  See  the  vivid  description  of  current  schooling  by  Professor 
William   E.    Hocking   in   his   discussion   of   Education   in   "  Human 


182  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

bread-and-butter  measures  in  public  instruction,  con- 
stantly tend  to  inhibit  the  teacher's  interpretation  of  his 
everyday  task  in  spiritual  terms.  The  result  is  that  we 
obtain  only  routine  instruction.  Every  true  teacher  deals 
with  souls;  subjects  are  only  his  tools. 

Nature  and  Its  Remaking,"  page  237.  (Yale  University  Press, 
1918). 


CHAPTER  XIV 

SPIRITUAL    VALUES    IN    SCHOOL    ACTIVITIES 

Since  a  school  is  much  more  than  an  agency  of  instnic- 
tion  and  is  principally  an  organization  of  lives  it  will 
be  in  the  activities  of  pupils  that  we  shall  look  for  the 
development  of  moral  and  spiritual  powers. 

It  is  an  axiom  of  modern  education  that  the  activities 
of  the  school  are  more  important  than  its  formal  programs  * 
of  instruction.  This  principle  holds  with  equal  force 
in  religious  education.  In  his  activities  the  child  has  a 
real  experience  into  which  all  his  powers  may  be  projected. 
It  becomes  a  much  more  complete  experience  than  is 
possible  with  class  instruction.  In  action  purposes  are 
formed,  projects  are  undertaken,  ideal  social  purposes 
take  form  in  the  will.  Ideals  become  real  as  they  are 
realized  in  action. 

First,  the  school,  as  a  total  activity  may  aid  in  devel- 
oping a  democratic  ideal  of  social  purposes.  In  itself 
the  school  is  an  expression  of  democracy.  It  is  a  social 
institution  devoted  to  the  development  of  society  through 
persons.  It  preaches  democracy,  clarifying,  illuminating 
and  enlarging  ideals,  as  it  is  explicitly  organized  for 
social  ends.  In  the  community,  as  each  person  shares 
in  supporting  and  conducting  the  school,  it  affords  for  all 
some  experience  in  democratic  living.  This  participation 
is  not  confined  to  tax-paying;  it  is  most  valuable  in  an 
intelligent  understanding  of  the  school's  work  and  in 
cooperation  therewith,  as  through  Parent-Teachers  clubs 
and  the  like.  Further,  the  very  fact  that  the  outstanding 
common  institution  of  community  life  exists  for  the  devel- 
opment of  persons  strengthens  the  community  sense  of  the 

183 


184  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

value  of  persons.  Such  impressions  affect  not  only  adults  ; 
they  carry  over  to  the  children  in  the  community.  The 
school  itself,  as  an  activity,  is  a  lesson  in  the  meaning  of 
•democracy. 

Second,  the  more  direct  results  will  come  from  the 
pupil's  own  activities  in  the  school.  One  can  arrive  at 
some  judgment  of  the  spiritual  values  of  school  experience 
by  asking  as  to  the  changes  that  take  place  in  the  social 
life  of  the  school.  What  are  the  effects  in  attitudes  and 
conduct  of  certain  studies  and  of  certain  activities.'^  If 
at  any  time  one  finds  that  kindness,  consideration  for 
others,  social  cooperation,  earnest  truth-seeking  and  con- 
sciousness of  social  standards  for  conduct  become  current 
on  the  playground  and  amongst  student  groups,  it  is 
usually  safe  to  look  for  the  causes  in  ideals  which  have 
grown  out  of  actual  experience  in  school  work.  Some- 
times the  course  of  development  is  quite  apparent  as 
when,  following  certain  courses,  children  play  at  civic 
organization,  municipal  serv^ice  or  do  actually  attempt 
in  seriousness  these  forms  of  social  relationship.  But 
many  of  the  most  valuable  lessons  in  democratic  living 
come  within  the  normal  experience  of  the  school  itself  and 
involve  no  social  projection  beyond  its  life. 

Spiritual  values  for  democracy  are  developed  in  the 
school's  discipline,  government  and  organization.  A 
school  is  a  little  world.  It  is  the  child's  most  immediate 
and  impressive  world.  By  its  character  it  is  determining 
the  meaning  of  all  his  worlds.  Sanity,  order,  precision 
and  joy  may  here  become  normal  to  his  universe.  In  the 
school  where  the  plan  of  organization  is  definitely  appre- 
hended by  the  teachers,  where  their  cooperation  and  loy- 
alty to  its  ideals  secures  staff  harmony  the  student  con- 
stantly sees  and  feels  lessons  more  impressive  than  any 
that  could  be  put  into  words.  Constantly  he  is  catching 
ideals  and  adopting  standards.  What  these  are  often 
appears  when  the  child  plays  school ;  they  become  evident 


SCHOOL  ACTIVITIES  185 

when  he  goes  out  into  the  larger  world.  In  such  a  school 
student-government  gives  expression  to  these  impressions. 
Student  self-government  has  value  only  where  the  school 
itself  is  wisely  governed.  We  owe  much  of  the  loose  and 
morally  disjointed,  slip-shod  methods  of  civic  life  to  the 
happy-go-lucky,  undisciplined,  disorganized  and  often 
chaotic  conditions  of  public-school  management.  This 
may  have  seemed  inevitable  in  the  small  country  school 
but  it  is  without  excuse  in  any  organized  school. 

But  the  value  of  all  organization  and  government  will 
depend  on  the  degree  to  which  it  arises  in  the  pupil's  will. 
In  this  sense  it  must  be  self-government.  So  long  as  it 
is  only  imposed  it  will  not  be  possessed  as  a  personal 
quality.  We  are  training  for  the  life  of  democracy  in 
the  schools;  that  must  be  a  life  of  free  willing  for  the 
common  good.  But  our  still  prevailing  idea  of  school 
discipline  is  that  of  a  feminine  Prussianism,  a  rose-colored 
but  none  the  less  absolute  pedagogical  autocracy.  There 
are  two  very  simple  considerations  to  remember:  First, 
school-life  is  the  child's  first  experience  in  making  wider 
social  adjustment;  Second,  the  life  of  the  school  is  his 
first  interpretation  of  the  life  of  the  state.  If  the  school- 
room means  the  arbitrary  regulation  of  his  life,  then 
social  living  is  likely  to  mean  that  he  will  be  good  just 
so  long  as  society  succeeds  in  regulating  him,  in  keeping 
an  eye  on  him  and  a  rod  over  him.  If  the  administration 
of  the  school-room  is  imposed  he  is  likely  to  feel  no 
responsibility,  no  sense  of  a  common  social  life  and  no 
ambition  beyond  that  of  beating  this  over-lord  at  its  own 
game. 

DEMOCRACY    AS    AN    EXPERIENCE 

The  suggestion  that  democracy  should  actually  be  prac- 
ticed by  classes  in  the  school-room  comes  as  a  shock  to 
many.  "  It  would  never  do  to  let  children  have  so  much 
power;  they  would  run  away  with  the  school."     But  that 


186  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

is  precisely  what  the  autocrats  have  always  said  to  pro- 
posals of  democracy  even  for  adults.  The  theory  always 
has  been  that  only  those  who  now  have  the  power  can 
be  trusted  with  it.  Yet  there  does  seem  to  be  some  ground 
for  the  objection  that  children  have  not  yet  acquired  the 
powers  of  self-control;  they  do  not  yet  know  how  to 
govern.  That  objection  constitutes  the  most  impressive 
argument  for  extending  the  experience  of  governing  to 
them.  We  do  not  deny  a  child  the  right  to  sing  because 
he  has  never  had  a  course  in  singing.  We  expect  he 
will,  perhaps,  come  to  the  point  where  his  singing  may 
justify  the  listening  audience  if  he  has  the  chance  to 
practice  and  undergo  discipline.  But,  in  every  art,  he 
will  never  learn  without  practice,  least  of  all  in  the  art 
of  social  organization.  This  art  of  living  in  a  democ- 
racy, of  social  self-direction,  is  acquired  just  as  other 
arts  are.  It  cannot  be  learned  through  books  or  lectures 
or  picked  up  after  the  habits  are  fixed.  The  way  to 
become  proficient  in  democracy  is  to  practice  democracy. 

Something  has  already  been  accomplished  by  the  organ- 
ization of  "  school  cities  "  and  the  like  in  classrooms.  All 
such  plans  have  merit  in  the  degree  that  they  furnish 
social  experiences  in  control.  But  they  have  one  serious 
shortcoming;  it  is  evident  to  the  pupils  that  they  are 
special  creations,  importations  to  the  class  situation. 
The  class  turns  from  being  a  class  to  become  a  city  or 
a  junior  republic.  The  experience  of  democracy  should 
be  integral  to  the  normal  social  situation,  or,  if  it  takes 
a  new  form,  the  movement  should  rise  spontaneously  in 
the  will  of  the  group  and  not  be  directed  or  imposed. 
Otherwise  the  "  school  city  "  is  likely  to  be  only  a  routine 
exercise. 

But  democratic  experience  may  he  provided  vn  the  nor- 
mal life  of  the  room  and  the  school,  the  playground  and 
^11  that  belongs  to  school  experience.     Here  we  meet  what 


SCHOOL  ACTIVITIES  187 

is  to  many  a  serious  difficulty  in  thinking  of  democracy 
as  an  activity  in  the  school;  it  is  objected  that  the 
children  could  not  possibly  elect  their  own  teachers,  nor 
could  they  select  their  courses  and  text-books.  This  is 
stated,  apparently,  as  a  fundamental  objection.  But  it 
is  based  on  the  false  assumption  that  the  principal  func- 
tions of  a  democracy  are  exercised  in  electing  officers  and 
directing  legislation.  So  far  is  this  from  the  fact  that 
such  activities  are  quite  occasional;  they  are  simply 
special  forms  of  exercising  those  responsibilities  in  democ- 
racy which  belong  to  adult  life.  The  real  practice  of 
democracy  goes  on  in  all  the  common  life  of  service,  in 
our  daily  labor  as  contributing  to  the  common  good,  in 
service  we  can  render  as  citizens,  in  paying  taxes,  in 
common  neighborliness.  Just  as  in  society  the  principal 
activity  of  democracy  goes  on  through  normal  participa- 
tion in  everyday  life  so  will  it  be  in  the  democracy  of 
the  school.  To  be  temporarily  debarred  from  electing 
officers  is  not  to  be  deprived  of  the  major  functions  of 
citizenship  in  democracy.  The  whole  democratic  society 
determines  this  matter  of  selecting  teachers  and  courses 
—  it  is  important  that  the  child  shall  clearly  see  that 
the  school  is  conducted  by  the  will  of  the  people — ;  but 
this  young  citizen  has  ample  opportunity  to  contribute 
to  the  democracy  by  regular  work,  voluntary  service, 
serious  applications  to  tasks  and  to  play  and  to  the 
social  ideals  of  the  school  by  controls  of  conduct. 

The  special  need  now  is  that  school  people  shall  take 
their  eyes  off  text-books  and  school  politics  long  enough 
to  realize  the  possibilities  in  the  child's  actual  experience 
in  the  school,  that  they  shall  become  conscious  of  the 
school  as  a  society  and  the  child  as  one  of  its  members. 
Here  the  child  is  actually  living  a  social  life,  rather  than 
"  getting  ready  to  live."  In  that  social  life  many  forms 
of   activity    arise,   enterprises    develop    and   powers    are 


188  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

called  into  play.  The  many-sided  response  of  the  child 
to  the  school's  stimulation  suggests  the  variety  of  forms 
of  democratic  initiative  and  control  open  to  him. 

In  free  play,  sports  and  athletics.  Here  the  child  is 
essentially  at  school;  more  of  him  is  likely  to  be  present 
here  than  at  any  other  time.  To  him  play  is  one  of 
the  most  natural  experiences  of  social  living.  No  peda- 
gogical consciousness  obtrudes  itself  and  yet  nowhere  can 
teaching  be  more  effective.  Every  power  of  life  is  called 
into  play  under  conditions  and  for  ends  which  are  often 
thoroughly  democratic.  Here  not  only  is  play  effective 
because  it  involves  social  mingling  but  because  it  develops 
social  cooperation,  coordinated  and  concerted  action. 
Here  social  autonomy  is  exercised ;  whatever  is  done  is 
by  the  will  of  the  people,  the  playing  group.  There  is 
experience  in  guiding  and  modifying  the  social  will  under 
the  pressure  of  school  opinion.  The  mode  of  modification 
may  often  be  far  from  calm  or  academic;  but  it  affords 
real  experience  in  democratic  living.  In  any  organized 
play  the  social  will  is  called  into  use  and  developed.  A 
game  is  simply  practice  in  the  formation  of  a  common 
goodwill.  Play  always  reveals  the  anti-social  child,  the 
one  who  will  not  get  into  the  game  because  he  has  not 
seen  how  much  better  is  the  common  will  than  his  own 
way.  Some  never  get  into  any  game  as  long  as  they  live; 
play  is  one  of  the  best  cures  for  their  moral  ill.  The 
playing  group  will  often  succeed  in  curing  selfish  individ- 
ualism where  the  parents  have  failed.  Here,  too,  the 
future  men  and  women  determine  how  they  will  play  the 
game  of  life  and  whether  they  shall  play  for  the  game, 
or  merely  for  winning  or  for  some  reward  exterior  to  the 
game. 

In  the  care  of  rooms  and  grounds.  Democracy  implies 
common  property  rights,  and  responsibilities  in  the 
school.  If  the  room  belongs  to  the  child  he  must  learn 
to  accept  the  stewardship  of  his  rights.     Formerly  the 


SCHOOL  ACTIVITIES  189 

school  patrons  presented  plaster  casts  to  the  school  rooms 
or  hung  enlarged  photographs  of  the  Forum;  now  the 
room  decides  what  it  wants  and,  after  discussion  for 
weeks  in  which  more  is  learned  of  art  and  beauty  than 
ever  before,  the  room  experiences  community  improve- 
ment. It  has  made  its  own  standard.  The  group  has 
lived  through  a  social  passage  from  "  your  room "  or 
"  your  old  grounds  "  to  our  room  and  our  grounds. 

COMMUNITY    AS    A    SCHOOL 

Community  service.  The  school  trains  for  democracy 
through  an  organized  experience  in  democracy ;  a  part  of 
that  experience  will  be  participation  in  the  life  of  the 
community.  If,  as  a  society,  the  school  group  does  not 
share  in  community  service  it  does  not  train  for  com- 
munity living.  A  self-centered  school  cannot  educate  for 
democracy.  This  principle  has  been  emphasized  by  mod- 
ern educational  science,  regarding  education  as  a  social 
experience  directed  toward  a  social  aim  it  insists  that 
all  shall  participate  in  the  realities  of  social  action. 
Therefore  we  find  the  group  leaving  the  school  room  and 
going  out  into  the  factories  and  workshops  to  discover 
their  community.  They  go  out,  also,  to  work  in  their 
community.  Civics,  mathematics  and  agriculture  effect 
combinations  that  lead  to  the  cultivation  of  garden  plots, 
the  eradication  of  weeds  on  the  highways,  the  planting 
of  trees  and  the  realization  of  city  ideals.  Often  it  is 
difficult  for  older  folks,  with  memories  of  the  drill-room 
school,  to  realize  that  their  children  are  being  properly 
trained,  educated,  when  they  take  the  tools  of  highway- 
making  in  hand  or  do  any  useful,  directed  service.  But 
all  doubts  would  be  removed  if  we  could  see  what  takes 
place  in  these  pupils  as  they  work,  how  they  not  only 
thus  acquire  the  text-book  lesson  but,  also,  the  lessons 
of  social  cooperation  and  the  habit  of  thinking  of  the 
community  in  terms  of  obligation  and  service. 


190  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

The  purpose  of  democracy  will  convert  the  community 
into  the  child's  school  of  social  living.  It  will  not  only 
regulate  its  life  for  his  protection:  it  will  direct  it  so 
that  it  may  be  morally  creative.  It  will  devise  forms  of 
social  cooperation.  It  will  so  organize  its  activities  that 
there  is  a  proper  place  for  the  voluntary  service  of  the 
school  group.  Where  the  school  becomes  a  part  of  the 
system  of  the  city  or  village  or  county  it  has  a  working 
place,  and  its  workers  become  part  of  the  normal  life  of 
their  community.  This  was  what  was  happening  recently 
when  a  dozen  high-school  boys  left  the  building  each 
carrying  pick,  or  hoe  or  shovel.  They  spent  the  day 
in  a  small  village,  under  the  village  official's  supervision, 
in  repairing  certain  spots  in  the  highways  and  walks. 
They  went  as  volunteers:  they  certainly  enjoyed  them- 
selves. But  the  point  is  that  they  identified  themselves, 
by  a  social  experience,  with  their  community's  life.  That 
was  effective  moral  training  for  democratic  living. 

The  great  war  gave  a  remarkable  stimulus  to  school 
activities  in  service,  calling  every  child  to  a  share  in  the 
national  enterprise.  Red-Cross  work,  knitting,  garden- 
cultivation,  food-conservation,  thrift,  bond-sales,  and 
work  for  children  in  other  lands  all  projected  the  child's 
energies,  feeling  and  imagination  into  the  world  life.  The 
nation  became  more  real  and  better  loved,  and  the  far-off 
world  was  brought  near  and  into  personal  relations.  The 
child  shared  the  national  life  in  a  deeper  degree  and  in 
a  new  manner,  through  service  and  sacrifice.  It  has  been 
possible  to  make  all  this  service  something  much  finer  than 
loyalty  to  the  national  group,  valuable  as  that  is;  often 
it  has  become  loyalty  to  universal  ideals,  a  process  of 
identifying  ourselves  with  a  national  life  that  sought  to 
serve  splendid  aims.  Such  service  has  been  an  expressional 
activity  in  relation  to  spiritual  ideals.  As  the  vision 
has  been  kept  clear  and  high  it  has  had  spiritual  value. 
Jt   has   been   simple,   normal    and   most   valuable   moral 


SCHOOL  ACTIVITIES  191 

training.  But  it  need  not  be  confined  to  the  times  of 
national  stress  and  emergency.  Service  is  the  normal 
experience  of  every  member  of  a  democracy.  What  is 
done  when  the  need  stands  out  in  a  startling  manner  may 
be  done  always  —  though  the  degree  of  intensity  may 
vary  —  so  long  as  there  is  developed  a  consciousness  of 
common  life  in  the  nation  and  a  purpose  of  loving  help- 
fulness toward  all  men. 

Only  a  few  of  the  possibilities  of  developing  high  pur- 
pose and  establishing  social  habits  through  the  experience 
of  activity  have  been  suggested.  These  simple  facts  are 
that  the  school  is  doing  work  with  active  persons;  nor- 
mally they  are  active  all  the  time,  and  all  their  activity  is 
determining  the  quality,  the  levels  and  power  of  their 
lives.  They  are  always  in  the  active  mood.  The  school 
has  ceased  to  be  governed  by  its  old-time  picture  of  a 
child  as  a  slightly  animated  ear,  a  passive  vessel  for 
information.  Whatever  it  accomplishes  with  the  child  it 
accomplishes  through  his  cooperation.  If  then,  in  all 
that  it  causes  the  child  to  do,  it  has  the  purpose  of  train- 
ing his  powers  of  willing,  choosing  and  doing  from  motives 
of  social  life,  under  the  democratic  ideals  of  life,  as  a 
member  of  a  common,  loving  society,  it  is  always  carrying 
on  moral  training.  It  is  always  dealing  with  spiritual 
natures  for  social  ends. 

It  will  be  objected  that  the  results  that  flow  only  from 
a  general  purpose  are  vague  and  likely  to  be  unimportant. 
We  are  always  tempted  to  turn  from  general  purposes, 
from  a  common  program  that  is  a  part  of  the  whole 
school  program,  to  some  special  efforts,  such  as  courses 
of  direct  instruction  in  moral  conduct.  That  is  because 
it  is  difficult  for  some  persons  to  have  faith,  hard  to 
believe  that  the  highest  good  is  always  a  by-product,  hard 
to  see  that  when  life  has  its  entire  program  it  accomplishes 
its  entire  purposes.  Just  as  no  one  finds  happiness  by 
looking  for  it,  so  no  one  finds  strength  or  elevation  of 


19^  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

character  by  any  deliberate  efforts  to  these  ends.  In 
every  life  spiritual  strength  comes  through  unwelcome 
pain,  through  everyday  joys  and  appreciations,  through 
diiBculties  met  and  struggle  experienced.  Desirable  mo- 
tives develop  in  the  life  by  indirection ;  they  do  not  come 
usually   by   observation. 

The  principle  which  leads  us  to  look  for  spiritual 
effects  from  the  ordinary  work  of  the  school  is  one  of 
the  highest  importance.  It  is  fundamental  to  moral  train- 
ing. We  must  remember  that  the  spiritual  is  not  a  sep- 
arate faculty,  a  something  disintegrated  from  the  total 
personality.  It  cannot  be  taken  out  of  the  life  nor  can 
it  be  treated  or  influenced  without  influencing  the  whole 
of  a  life.  And  so  that  which  is  sought  is  the  develop- 
ment of  a  whole  life.  Whatever  symmetrically  develops 
the  powers  of  a  life  develops  its  moral  and  spiritual 
powers.  Virtues  are  not  separate  items  to  be  separately 
acquired.  Indeed,  it  is  not  a  series  of  virtues  that  is 
sought  but  the  virtuous  person,  that  is  one  whose  devel- 
oped powers  are  directed  toward  certain  ideals  and  ideal 
purposes. 

But  to  many  all  these  considerations  will  seem  to  be 
very  far  from  religious  training.  They  certainly  are 
if  by  religious  training  is  meant  instruction  about  certain 
subjects,  biblical  lessons  and  drills  in  catechisms.  But  if 
we  regard  the  aim  of  religious  education  as  that  of  prepar- 
ing persons  to  live  in  a  religious  society  then  these  school 
experiences  will  not  seem  to  be  without  value  to  that 
end.  These  school  experiences  may  not  extend  the  pupil's 
knowledge  of  theology,  but  they  may  lead  to  habits  of 
thinking  about  all  life  and  the  world  in  religious  terms ; 
they  may  lead  to  those  habits  of  mind  and  of  action 
which  characterize  all  religious  persons.  They  will  serve 
their  purpose  in  realizing  the  religious  aim  of  a  society 
which  sets  first  spiritual  ends  and  is  organized  for  love 
and   truth    and   goodness.     The    school   which    furnishes 


SCHOOL  ACTIVITIES  193 

the  pupil  an  experience  of  a  society  of  common  goodwill 
and  of  loving  social  cooperation  is  constantly,  without 
the  least  danger  of  sectarian  trespass,  engaged  in  religious 
education. 

The  effectiveness  of  the  school  to  develop  those  qualities 
of  life  which  are  essential  in  a  democratic  society  depends 
very  largely  on  our  faith  in  its  spiritual  possibilities. 
The  whole  problem  of  moral  training  is  merged  in  this 
larger  matter  of  developing  social  lives',  in  creating  and 
making  effective  social  ideals.  The  school  is  efficient  in 
moral  training  in  the  degree  that  it  stimulates  and  guides 
the  child's  spiritual  nature,  in  the  degree  that  it  makes 
life  mean  for  him  a  common  living  with  all,  common  joy 
and  common  work  under  spiritual  ideals. 


CHAPTER  XV 

THE    BIBLE    AND    PUBUC    EDUCATION 

If  a  religious  spirit  is  essential  for  life  in  a  democracy, 
and  if  this  spirit  is  developed  through  education,  does  it 
follow  that  instruction  in  the  Bible  must  be  included  in 
public  education? 

Many  answer  with  an  emphatic  affirmative  and  they 
bring  many  arguments  to  support  their  contention. 
Those  who  are  urging  the  use  of  the  Bible  in  the  schools, 
however,  often  have  no  special  educational  basis  for  their 
claims;  they  are  likely  to  believe  that  religion  is  something 
which,  in  a  mysterious  manner,  is  conveyed  from  the 
Bible  to  those  who  study  it.  While  we  reject  this  notion" 
it  is  worth  while  to  consider  other  reasons  for  including 
the  Bible  in  the  materials  of  education,  and  to  face  the 
question  whether  this  book  can  be  used  in  the  public 
schools. 

The  Bible  is  integral  to  the  heritage  of  democracy. 
Our  developing  ideal  of  democracy  is  the  result  of  a  long 
process  of  moral  and  intellectual  growth,  an  accumulation 
of  spiritual  ideals.  We  have  not  created  it ;  it  has  come 
down  from  our  fathers  and  each  age  has  enlarged  and 
enriched  it.  This  heritage  of  freedom  is  inextricably 
woven  with  the  history  of  the  Bible.  This  is  largely 
because  the  struggle  for  political  freedom  was  so  much  a 
struggle  for  religious  freedom.  Wyclif,  Tyndall,  Milton, 
all  suggest  the  relatedness  of  political  emancipation  to 
the  popular  use  of  the  Bible.  The  ideals  of  man's  worth 
and  man's  rights  inspired  the  leaders  for  freedom;  the 
writers  seem  to  be  saturated  with  the  language  of  this 
book.     The  literature  of  Anglo-Saxon  freedom  cannot  be 

194 


THE  BIBLE  AND  PUBLIC  EDUCATION      195 

!  understood  by  one  ignorant  of  the  Bible.  The  prophets 
of  democracy  found  here  their  strength  and  inspiration. 
Our  peculiar  type  of  civilization  is  a  direct  descendant 
of  that  which  Hebrew  prophets  outlined  and  Hebrew 
people  enjoyed.  There  are  vast  differences  due  to  devel- 
opment, but  there  are  the  same  insistences  on  certain 
values,  personal,  ideal  and  social,  and  there  are  the  same 
endeavors  after  freedom  of  the  spirit.  He  who  would 
know  the  heritage  of  democracy  in  world  ideals  must  have 
the  prophets  and  poets  of  the  Bible  in  his  mind. 

The  Bible  is  a  unique  book  and  yet  a  universal  book. 
Every  man  finds  his  own  heart  there.  Every  people  finds 
itself  at  home  in  the  biblical  ideals.  That  is  because 
they  transcend  their  own  settings ;  we  lose  sight  of  the 
orientalisms  and  the  common  language  of  religion  is  heard. 
Thus  the  Bible  becomes  for  us  the  most  natural  and  the 
most  powerful  instrument  in  developing  religious  ideals 
and  feeling.  When  we  seek  to  teach  religion  no  other 
literature  can  approach  this.  Whatever  view  we  may  . 
have  as  to  its  historic  making  we  are  compelled  to  recog- 
nize it  as  the  supreme  religious  classic.  It  has  been 
greatly  misused  in  the  name  of  religion,  abused  as  the 
tool  of  sectarians,  and  treated  as  a  fetish  by  the  ignorant, 
yet  it  comes  to  us  with  the  dew  of  the  morning,  stimulating 
with  ideals,  compelling  in  its  commanding  characters, 
touching  the  deep  places  of  all  sincere  lives.  It  is  the 
literary  precipitation  of  the  spiritual  life  of  a  people 
"  with  a  genius  for  religion."  For  us  who  are  their  / 
spiritual  heirs  it  is  difficult  to  think  of  any  kind  of  train- 
ing for  life  which  omits  this  book. 

The  Bible  is  peculiarly  the  book  of  democracy.  When 
we  clarify  its  essence  from  the  incidental  we  find,  all 
through,  one  consistent,  developing  emphasis  on  the  inter- 
pretation and  valuation  of  all  life  in  spiritual  terms. 
That  emphasis  is  distinct  in  the  later  prophets  and  finds 
its  most  illuminating  setting  in  the  life  and  teachings  of 


196  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

Jesus.  Now  this  central  emphasis  is  also  that  of  democ- 
racy. The  total  effect  of  the  Bible  sets  forth  those  values 
in  personality  which  democracy  holds  supreme.  For  the 
strengthening  of  the  spiritual  ideal  of  democracy  society 
to-day  needs  the  stimulus  of  its  historical  development, 
needs  that  setting  in  noble  words  and  that  illumination  in 
heroic  lives  which  come  through  an  open-minded  familiar- 
ity with  the  Bible. 

Now  if  the  Bible  is  so  valuable  how  are  we  to  make 
sure  that  it  becomes  the  spiritual  heritage  of  the  children 
of  democracy?  There  is  only  one  institution  which 
reaches  practically  all  the  children,  and  so  the  ready 
answer  is,  See  that  the  Bible  is  taught,  or  at  least  used, 
in  all  public  schools.  That  suggestion  is  easily  made, 
but  it  calls  for  courses  of  action  in  which  the  difficulties 
and  objections  seem  to  be  insuperable.  These  must  be 
faced  before  we  can  be  quite  clear  as  to  any  plans  for 
teaching  the  Bible  as  a  part  of  education  for  democracy. 

There  are,  first,  serious  problems  which  arise  in  con- 
nection with  the  three  reasons  urged  for  the  reading  and 
study  of  the  Bible  in  pubHc  schools.  These  reasons  are: 
that  it  is  part  of  the  child's  literary  heritage,  that  it  is 
of  value  in  moral  training,  and  that  the  child  needs  its 
materials  for  religious  instruction.  But  the  three  reasons 
are  often  confused  in  the  public  mind.  Many  are  urging 
the  literary  and  moral  value  of  the  Bible  who  are  inter- 
ested only  in  its  doctrinal  teachings.  Those  who  urge 
the  value  of  its  direct  moral  teachings  must  face  the 
question  of  its  immoral  teachings,  as  in  the  practices  of 
an  ancient  people  and  the  claims  for  divine  approval  of 
social  customs  long  since  outlawed.  An  examination  of 
the  propaganda  for  the  use  of  the  Bible  in  the  schools 
reveals  a  preponderance  of  interest  on  the  dogmatic  side. 
The  reasons  adduced  are  educational  but  the  motives  are 
ecclesiastical.  While  many  teachers  recognize  and  seek 
to  use  the  literary  values  of  the  Bible,  the  vigorous  cam- 


THE  BIBLE  AND  PUBLIC  EDUCATION      197 

paigns    for   its    introduction    into   public    education    are' 
distinctly  sectarian. 

Now  it  ought  to  be  clear  that  we  must  not  endeavor 
to  secure  the  teachings  even  of  our  own  faith  —  even 
when  we  are  confidently  and  complacently  certain  of  its 
superiority  —  under  false  pretenses.  No  purpose  is  so 
noble  it  can  justify  ignoble  means.  Even  though  we 
desire  with  all  our  hearts,  and  with  the  best  human  aspira- 
tion possible,  that  all  the  young  should  become  Christian 
we  cannot  covertly,  by  means  socially  unworthy,  attempt 
to  secure  their  conversion.  The  question  of  the  Bible  in 
the  schools  must  be  examined  altogether  apart  from  our 
convictions  regarding  our  own  religious  doctrines  and 
institutions. 

THE    ARGUMENTS    FOR    THE    USE    OF    THE    BIBLE 

The  Bible  and  the  child^s  literary  heritage.  The  first 
reason  for  the  use  of  the  Bible  in  schools  seems  to  be  a 
good  one.  The  school  must  help  the  child  discover  his 
literary  heritage.  Not  only  is  the  Bible  an  essential  part 
of  that  heritage  but  biblical  language  has  saturated  all 
our  everyday  speech.  Moreover  this  book  is  a  part  of 
the  world's  literature.  Our  day  calls  for  sympathy  with 
the  thought  of  people  of  all  lands  and  times.  There  is 
the  same  reason,  at  least,  for  the  study  of  the  Bible  as  for 
the  use  of  Greek,  Roman,  Romance  and  Norse  literature. 
But  we  must  be  sure  that  it  is  used  as  literature,  subject 
to  the  laws  that  govern  all  literary  productions,  treated 
precisely  as  we  treat  Greek  and  Norse  legends  and  poetry. 
The  school  has  no  right  even  to  suggest  its  religious 
authority  over  the  child's  conscience.  We  may,  with 
propriety,  insist  that,  in  our  American  civilization,  the 
Bible  lies  back  of  Shakespeare,  Milton,  Coleridge,  Lowell, 
Lincoln  and  Ruskin.  There  can  be  no  valid  objection  to 
the  inclusion  of  passages  of  literary  worth  from  any 
religious  classics.     The  Shepherd  Psalm  should  be  included 


198  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

in  school-work,  not  because  of  its  teaching  on  God,  but 
for  the  same  reason  that  passages  from  "  In  Memoriam  " 
are  included,  because  elevated  ideas  are  expressed  in 
'  stately,  harmonious  and  simple  language.  On  the  same 
grounds  passages  from  the  Buddha  legends  might  be 
included  to  advantage.  Biblical  passages,  coming  under 
this  category,  are  found  in  school-readers.  In  high 
schools  there  could  be  no  valid  objection  to  the  reading 
of  the  book  of  Ruth,  for  example.  But  all  this  would 
be  simply  the  study  of  literature.  Would  that  pure 
literary  study  content  the  advocates  of  the  Bible  in  the 
schools  ? 

The  Bible  and  moral  training.  The  second  reason  is 
a  part  of  the  public  demand  for  a  moral  product  from 
the  schools.  But  there  are  serious  fallacies  in  the  argu- 
ment that  we  can  depend  on  the  Bible  to  accomplish  the 
moral  aims  of  the  school.  In  the  first  place,  morality 
is  more  a  matter  of  training  than  of  instruction ;  it  is 
principally  dependent  on  the  actions  and  habits  of  the 
life.  One  might  have  complete  familiarity  with  the  moral 
teachings  of  the  Bible  and  yet  be  the  veriest  rogue  and 
menace  to  society.  Moral  living  does  not  develop  from 
a  study  of  the  rules  of  behavior  even  in  the  most  exalted 
books.  To  memorize  canons  of  conduct  will  not  make  a 
gentleman.  Literature  does  help  in  forming  ideals  but 
it  does  not  insure  conduct.  Next,  the  morality  of  the 
Bible  is  not  the  morality  of  this  age.  Social  ideals  have 
developed.  The  moral  conduct  of  Abraham  or  of  Jacob 
would  hardly  pass  muster  to-day.  Democracy  demands 
more  of  men.  Which  would  we  commend  to  a  young  man 
to-day,  the  example  of  Jacob  or  that  of  Henry  Esmond? 
The  young  find  difficulty  in  modifying  Abraham  by  his 
historic   setting. 

It  is  true  that  lofty  ideals,  framed  in  sublime  language, 
are  presented  in  the  Bible.  They  have  passed  over  into 
our  common  life  to  such  a  degree  that  they  owe  their 


THE  BIBLE  AND  PUBLIC  EDUCATION      199 

authority  not  so  much  to  the  book  which  contains  them 
as  to  the  answer  they  quicken  in  our  own  breasts.  They 
have  the  authority  of  conscience.  Some  of  the  characters 
have  been  idealized  for  our  times;  they  owe  their  force 
to  this  idealization  rather  than  to  any  evident  superiority 
to  heroes  more  immediate  to  our  lives.  It  is  difficult  to 
be  more  attracted  by  Samuel  than  by  Lincoln,  or  Living- 
ston or  by  Florence  Nightingale.  And  which  would  count 
for  more  to  a  boy  to-day,  Saul  and  David  or  Chinese 
Gordon,  Theodore  Roosevelt  or  Dr.  GrenfelL?  The  latter 
are  real,  comprehensible;  the  former  are  entangled  in 
historical  data  and  oriental  customs.  The  attempt  to 
find  nearer  at  hand  material  of  moral  value  does  not  lose 
sight  of  what  has  been  said  on  the  place  of  the  Bible 
in  our  spiritual  heritage.  But  it  is  necessary  to  discrim- 
inate ;  there  are  degrees  of  value  within  the  Bible.  The 
Bible  is  essential  but  it  is  not  the  most  convenient  nor 
the  most  effective  material  for  moral  instruction.  When 
its  use  in  the  schools  is  urged  on  grounds  of  moral  teach- 
ings the  school-men  have  consistent  objections;  they  have 
other  material,  ample  and  free  from  divisive  elements  and 
historical  difficulties.  They  say,  moreover,  that  the 
churches  which  have  entire  freedom  in  the  use  of  the  Bible 
do  not  use  it  in  teaching  moral  living.  Those  who  are 
insisting  on  the  Bible  in  the  public  schools  for  moral 
purposes  are  not  organizing  their  own  biblical  courses  in 
churches  for  moral  ends. 

The  Bible  and  religious  instruction.  This  third  and 
most  common  plea  comes  from  those  who  regard  the  Bible 
as  a  book  of  explicit  religious  authority.  They  point 
to  the  large  number  of  children  growing  up  in  ignorance 
of  this  book  and  urge  that,  since  it  is  essential  to  their 
welfare,  the  pubHc  school  is  the  one  agency  which  can 
give  it  to  them  all.  This  propaganda  commonly  ignores 
the  fact  that  much  biblical  material  is  already  in  many 
school-readers,  that  quotations  from  the  Bible  abound  in 


200  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

English  literature.  Often  it  denounces  the  schools 
because  they  do  not  make  a  special  subject  of  Bible-study. 
It  is  indifferent  to  what  the  schools  are  now  doing  with 
the  Bible  because  they  are  not  doing  what  is  desired : 
teaching  religious  doctrines  by  its  use.  It  would  be 
impossible  to  meet  their  wishes,  not  only  because  religious 
doctrines  lie  beyond  the  province  of  the  schools  but, 
equally,  because  there  is  not  and  there  cannot  be  agree- 
ment as  to  what  doctrines  should  be  taught  nor  as  to 
how  the  Bible  should  be  interpreted. 

PBOBLEMS    AND    DIFFICULTIES 

A  second  group  of  problems  arises  from  the  nature 
of  the  schools  as  institutions  of  a  state  which  is  founded 
on  freedom  of  conscience.  The  Bible  has  a  unique  place 
in  Christianity;  it  is  a  book  of  religious  authority, 
officially  so  recognized  by  most  churches.  To  many  it 
is  a  book  of  supernatural  authority,  direct  and  explicit. 
It  contains  exact  directions  for  conduct  and  for  belief. 
To  others  it  has  authority  in  the  degree  that  it  speaks 
with  power ;  it  is  followed  where  it  leads  forward.  What- 
ever the  attitude  of  individuals  may  be  the  Bible  has 
become  peculiarly  an  ecclesiastical  book,  associated  often 
with  church  ordinances  and  ceremonies.  It  has  been 
differentiated  from  other  literature,  in  part  because  it 
is  different  in  many  resj>ects,  but  more  because  it  has 
been  historically  associated  with  the  founding  of  churches, 
with  their  conflicts  one  with  another,  and  with  their 
propaganda.  It  cannot  be  disassociated  from  these  sec- 
tarian connections.  It  is  still  commonly  used  against 
faiths  that  are  at  home  in  the  United  States,  and  each 
group  tends  to  use  it  in  a  sectarian  manner.  Parents 
desire  their  children  to  know  it  as  the  foundations  of 
their  own  faith  and  the  foe  of  other  faiths. 

The  sectarian  character  of  the  Bible,  as  it  stands  in 
popular  usage   and   thinking,   and   the   sectarian   aim   in 


THE  BIBLE  AND  PUBLIC  EDUCATION      201 

biblical  instruction  must  be  remembered  whenever  we 
consider  a  plea  for  its  use  in  the  public  schools.  The 
schools  are  public  institutions  and  the  public  life  of 
America  is  absolutely  committed  to  the  principle  of  the 
separation  of  church  and  state.  When  the  state  lends 
its  power  to  support  any  particular  creed  it  steps  beyond 
its  province,  it  passes  from  the  civic  realm  into  that  of 
conscience;  it  breaks  the  agreement  of  freedom  of  con- 
science upon  which  this  democracy  is  established.  When 
the  public-school  teacher  treats  the  Bible  as  a  book  of 
religious  authority,  using  it  in  worship  or  for  dogmatic 
purposes,  that  teacher,  while  an  agent  of  the  state,  is 
engaging  in  religious  functions  of  an  explicit  character 
and  is  trespassing  on  the  rights  of  the  churches.  He  is 
offending  against  personal  religious  liberty.  Even  though 
we  may  agree  entirely  with  the  doctrines  that  are  taught, 
though  we  may  admire  the  worship,  we  must  still  insist 
that  the  state  has  no  right  to  teach  religion,  as  such, 
and  that  we  have  no  right  to  depend  on  its  power  for 
the  propagation  of  our  own  faith,  for  we  would  oppose 
the  propagation  of  error  by  the  same  agency.  It  is 
easy  to  understand  how  many  indorse  the  teaching  of 
religion  in  the  schools  —  meaning  their  own  religion,  but 
the  plan  is  fair  neither  to  the  school  nor  to  the  churches. 
If  it  is  urged  that  the  schools  can  agree  on  a  common 
body  of  biblical  teachings,  the  answer  is  that  it  is  not 
the  business  of  the  school  to  determine  the  content  of 
religious  teaching ;  it  is  not  their  duty  to  formulate  a 
common  American  creed,  nor  have  they  the  right  to 
select  any  sort  of  literature  for  the  schools  on  a  doctrinal 
basis.  That  they  can  select  and  use  parts  of  the  Bible 
purely  as  literature  no  one  questions,  but  any  selections 
made  upon  a  doctrinal  principle  would  be  offensive  to 
nine-tenths  of  the  people.  So  far  as  any  attempt,  as 
has  been  seriously  proposed,  to  agree  on  a  few  simple 
statements  of  religious  truth,  is  concerned,  such  a  state- 


202  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

ment,  no  matter  how  simple,  would  constitute  the  creed 
of  the  public  schools  which  adopted  it.  Whenever  we 
find  ultimate  common  ground  in  religion  we  get  down  to 
'  a  substratum  that  is  already  commonly  held,  that  has 
no  special  significance  for  life,  a  creed  too  thin  for  life's 
foundations. 

The  public  school  is  not  prepared  for  the  work  of  teach- 
ing religion.  Teachers  are  not  trained  for  that  purpose. 
They  are  not  selected  with  reference  to  their  creeds,  as 
a  rule.  Nor  are  we,  on  serious  thought,  prepared  to  com- 
mit the  religious  teaching  of  children  to  teachers  who  may 
have  no  effective  religious  life  or  who  may  be  of  faiths 
emphatically  different  from  those  in  which  we  would  train 
our  children.  The  state  has  a  right  to  engage  teachers 
of  any  faith;  but  usually  parents  are  not  quite  ready  to 
have  religion  taught  to  their  children  by  Catholics, 
Protestants,  Jews,  Christian  Scientists  or  what  not.  In 
fact  the  school  system  does  not  regard  the  teacher  as  a 
teacher  of  religion.  If  it  did  it  would  institute  courses 
in  teaching  religion  in  the  normal  colleges ;  it  would  engage 
teachers  with  reference  to  abilities  in  this  field,  and  it 
would  test  their  work  by  results  in  religious  knowledge. 
Lacking  the  consciousness  of  this  duty  the  state  expects 
no  professional  training  with  reference  to  religion.  The 
result  is  that  any  efforts  in  this  direction  are  purely  those 
of  amateurs  so  far  as  teaching  is  concerned. 

State  instruction  vn  religion  is  an  invasion  of  the  rights 
of  the  churches.  In  the  degree  that  we  seek  to  lay  this 
duty  on  the  public  schools  we.  rob  the  churches  of  their 
greatest  religious  opportunity  and  privilege.  When  the 
church  evades  the  duty  of  proper  religious  instruction  and 
turns  to  the  public  schools,  saying  "  You  do  this,"  she 
closes  the  door  on  her  future.  There  can  be  no  church 
to-morrow  unless  the  church  trains  the  children  to-day. 
We  have  no  right  to  relinquish  the  religious  training  of 
the  young.     It  is  a  private  duty  that  cannot  be  given  to 


THE  BIBLE  AND  PUBLIC  EDUCATION      203 

public  agencies.  Primarily  it  is  a  duty  of  the  family; 
here  it  must  begin  and  be  maintained.  Then,  as  families 
are  associated  in  churches,  they  are  able  to  agree  on  suit- 
able teachers  of  religion  for  their  children  in  the  churches. 
This  selection  they  cannot  make  with  reference  to  public- 
school  teachers.  It  is  a  careless,  thoughtless  attitude,  one 
of  indifference  to  the  importance  of  religion,  that  leads  to 
the  demand  that  the  school  take  over  this  duty;  it  fails 
to  see  that  this  work  calls  for  special  training,  for  an 
atmosphere  of  religion  and  for  spiritually  minded  persons. 
The  agitation  for  direct  biblical  instruction  in  the 
schools  is  due  to  two  causes ;  first,  it  is  an  attempt  to 
lay  another  duty  on  these  public  agencies,  a  part  of  the 
habit  of  extending  the  field  of  public  activities,  and, 
second,  it  is  an  attempt  to  import  the  customs  of  other 
countries  having  civic  ideals  and  civil  conditions  different 
from  ours.  Now,  in  the  United  States,  we  cannot  urge 
English  methods  for  England  still  has  a  state  church; 
also,  England  is  by  no  means  united  as  to  the  propriety 
of  religious  instruction  in  state  schools.  We  cannot 
urge  German  methods  because  the  German  system  of 
control  down  to  the  last  detail  of  the  content  of  instruc- 
tion was  possible  only  under  Prussianism.  Even  the  prac- 
tices of  New  Zealand,  Australia  and  Canada  do  not  hold 
good  for  the  United  States,  for  these  countries  still  follow 
the  traditional  ways  of  their  mother  land. 

PROPOSED    SOLUTIONS 

Acknowledging  the  difficulties  and  limitations  as  to  the 
use  of  the  Bible  in  public  schools  it  has  been  urged  that 
it  would  be  possible  not  only  to  exercise  freedom  in 
teaching  the  Bible  but  to  extend  into  thorough  rehgious 
instruction  by  one  of  the  following  plans:  1,  Through 
pastors,  priests  or  appointed  church  workers  who  would 
visit  the  schools  at  stated  periods  in  order  to  teach 
religion.     But  this  would  be  to  ignore  the  principle  of 


20*  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

separation  between  church  and  state :  it  would  take  advan- 
tage of  the  power  of  the  state  to  gather  children;  it 
would  use  the  equipment  of  the  public  agency  for  private 
purposes.  Further,  it  would  tend  to  disrupt  the  social 
unity  of  the  school  by  injecting  sectarianism,  by  quick- 
ening the  consciousness  amongst  children  of  church  lines 
of  division.  2,  By  providing  that  schools  be  dismissed 
for  one  half  day  each  week  in  order  that  students  may 
go  to  their  churches  for  religious  instruction.^  This  plan 
is  without  objection  so  far  as  questions  of  civil  relation- 
ships are  concerned.  It  could  mean,  however,  nothing 
more  than  the  erection  of  an  extended  Sunday-school 
program  in  the  midweek.  It  has  no  special  relation  to 
the  question  of  teaching  religion  or  the  Bible  in  public 
schools  save  as  it  would  tend  to  make  it  less  necessary. 
This  plan  is  not  the  same  as  the  so-called  Gary  system; 
here  a  regular  schedule  of  classes  is  maintained  by  the 
united  efforts  of  the  churches  and  children  are  in  at- 
tendance at  religious  instruction  in  a  number  of  church- 
schools  —  in  practically  continuous  operation  —  when 
they  are  free  from  the  regular  public-school  program.- 
Neither  of  these  plans,  nor  the  numerous  forms  of  after- 
school  instruction  carried  on  by  the  churches  in  New 
York,  must  be  confused  with  plans  to  teach  religion  in 
the  public  schools.  These  plans  have  no  organic  relation 
to  the  schools ;  they  use  neither  their  time,  money,  forces 
nor  authority.  3,  It  is  proposed  to  teach  religion  indi- 
rectly in  the  schools,  using  the  Bible  in  literature.  But 
we  ought  to  be  honest,  not  attempting  to  crowd  religion 
in  surreptitiously;  when  the  Bible  is  taught  for  its 
religious  values  —  our  religious  values  —  it  is  dishonest 
to  call  that  the  teaching  of  Literature.     4,  By  the  presen- 

1  Proposed  by  Dr.  G.  U.  Wenner  in  "  Religious  Education  and  the 
Public  Schools,"   (Am.  Tract  Soc). 

2  The  Gary  plan  is  discussed  under  "  Community  Organization." 
Full  particulars  may  be  obtained  by  addressing  the  Religious  Edu- 
cation Association,  1440  E.  57th  St.,  Chicago. 


THE  BIBLE  AND  PUBLIC  EDUCATION      205 

tation  of  religion  as  a  subject  of  scientific  study.  This 
might  be  perfectly  proper,  but  it  would  be  devoid  of 
religious  value.  Religion  as  a  subject  of  knowledge  is 
not  necessarily  religious.  To  master  its  history  may  not 
mean  that  one  is  mastered  by  its  spirit.  5,  By  Worship. 
It  is  still  the  custom  in  many  places  to  open  pubhc 
schools  with  religious  worship.  The  practice  is  forbidden 
by  statute  in  some  states.  The  prevalence  of  the  custom 
is  due  to  its  long  establishment;  it  comes  to  us  from  two 
sources,  tradition  first,  the  methods  in  vogue  for  so  long 
in  days  when  there  was  agreement  on  Christianity  as  the 
one  faith,  and  also  from  the  tendency  to  think  of  the 
school  assembly  in  churchly  terms.  But  a  consideration 
of  what  is  really  taking  place  in  public-school  worship 
must  give  us  grave  thought.  Selections  from  the  Bible 
are  read  as  selections  from  other  books  are  not  read;  it 
is  treated  as  a  book  of  peculiar  religious  authority. 
Hymns  are  sung  which  were  written  to  express  and  develop 
specific  doctrinal  concepts.  The  principal,  or  teacher, 
or  visitor  offers  prayer,  a  distinct  act  of  religion  with 
definite  doctrinal  significances.  In  a  word,  the  state  here 
takes  over  the  functions  of  a  church.  No  matter  how 
desirable  it  may  seem  to  be  to  cultivate  a  spirit  of  wor- 
ship, is  it  really  fair,  is  it  honorable  toward  the  Jew  — 
to  be  specific  —  to  use  this  school  which  he  is  compelled 
to  support  as  a  means  of  propagating  a  faith  contrary 
to  that  which  he  holds  ?  Can  any  faith  afford  to  advance 
itself  by  unfair  means? 

Arguments  drawn  from  the  custom  of  prayer  in  legis- 
lative halls  will  avail  nothing  here.  The  case  does  not 
rest  on  precedent  but  on  right.  It  ought  not  to  be 
decided  either  by  legislative  custom  or  enactment ;  it  ought 
to  be  decided  by  our  own  sense  of  justice.  But  the  legis- 
lators do  not  engage  in  sectarian  worship  —  nor  usually 
in  any  sort  of  worship;  even  that  is  beside  the  point, 
for  legislatures  may   act  unconstitutionally.     Nor  does 


206  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

the  case  of  chaplains  in  the  army  apply,  for  they  are  ap- 
pointed under  an  agreement  between  the  different  church 
communions.  In  both  cases  only  mature  persons  are  af- 
fected who  can  and  do  use  their  powers  of  mental  inhibi- 
tion and  their  right  to  be  absent. 

General  exercises  are  a  valuable  part  of  school  training, 
but  they  ought  not  to  be  ecclesiastical,  nor  doctrinal,  nor, 
in  the  popular  sense,  religious  exercises.  The  religion  of 
the  school  finds  expression  in  an  ideal  of  citizenship.  If 
you  want  to  see  school  children  really  worship  go  to  a 
general  assembly  focussed  on  patriotic  ideals.  Social 
aspiration  and  service  give  ample  opportunity  for  common 
feeling  and  devotion  for  the  school  group. 

There  is  only  one  attitude  for  the  religious  citizen,  one 
equally  essential  to  the  preservation  of  civic  freedom  and 
to  the  welfare  of  religious  agencies:  it  is  to  stand  uncom- 
promisingly on  our  spiritual  principle  of  the  necessary 
freedom  of  religion  and  the  consequent  separation  of 
church  and  state.  This  attitude  is  no  small  contribution 
to  democracy;  it  is  democracy  expressing  itself  as  to 
the  relations  of  the  state  to  the  religious  life  and  to 
religious   thought. 

Doubtless  it  seems  that  we  have  only  suggested  diffi- 
culties and  have  offered  no  suggestion  of  a  solution  of 
the  problem  of  religion  in  the  schools  of  a  democracy. 
This  is  inevitable:  there  is  no  solution,  so  far  as  formal 
relations  are  concerned,  which  will  give  religious  teaching 
a  place  in  the  schools.  We  must  remember  that  the  prob- 
lem goes  back  of  any  question  of  religion  in  the  schools ; 
it  exists  in  this  form  simply  as  a  phase  of  the  under- 
lying problem  of  securing  for  religious  teaching  an 
adequate  place  in  the  child's  program  and  experience. 
The  problem  to  be  solved  is  not,  how  can  we  get  religio^ 
into  the  schools,  but,  how  can  we  get  religion  into  the^ 
child's  life?  Before  that  problem  it  is  worth  wlule  to 
clear  the  ground,  to  make  up  our  minds  as  to  certain 


THE  BIBLE  AND  PUBLIC  EDUCATION      207 

methods  which  cannot  be  used  and  certain  agencies  which 
are  not  available.  Then  we  can  take  the  next  step  of 
concentrating  attention  on  the  development  of  the  means 
and  the  agencies  which  are  available.  If  the  schools 
cannot  be  used,  if  the  Bible  cannot  be  formally  taught 
in  public  schools,  why  waste  time  over  that  issue?  Would 
it  not  be  well  to  go  back  to  the  original  purpose  and 
begin  to  improve  the  opportunities  now  at  hand  and  open 
to  us  in  which  the  Bible  may  be  taught.'^ 

The  blame  for  ignorance  of  the  Bible  lies  not  with  the 
public  schools  but  with  those  who  are  directly  responsible 
for  religious  instruction;  it  lies  with  those  who  clamor 
to  have  the  Bible  taught  in  schools  and  who  also  crowd 
the  children  into  basements,  cut  the  time  schedule,  furnish 
untrained  teachers  and  levy  on  the  children  for  the  sup- 
port of  a  school  which  they  call  a  Bible  school.  We 
trifle  with  religious  education  in  religious  agencies  and 
then  ask  civil  agencies  to  take  it  seriously.  We  say 
that  religion  is  the  all-important  concern  for  the  child 
and  for  the  welfare  of  civil  life;  but  there  is  no  evidence 
that  we  mean  what  we  say  for  religion  is  the  last  matter 
and  the  least  to  which  we  pay  attention  in  the  child's 
educational  program.  We  have  no  right  to  criticize  the 
public  schools  for  any  shortcomings  so  long  as  our  own 
efforts  are  so  feeble,  so  fainthearted.  When  the  church , 
takes  the  child  with  anything  like  the  seriousness  with 
which  the  state  treats  him,  the  new  kingdom,  the  democ- 
racy of  the  spirit,  will  be  much  nearer  at  hand.  There 
is  no  reason  why  the  churches  of  a  community  should 
not  fully  and  properly  provide  for  all  the  religious  instruc- 
tion needed  by  all  their  children.  It  will  call  for  only 
as  much  thought  and  investment  as  is  needed  for  our 
community  provision  for  general  education.^ 

1  For  a  discussion  of  this  point,  and  on  the  practical  methods 
involved  see  "  Religious  Education  in  the  Church,  Henry  F.  Cope 
(Scribners,   1918). 


208  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

Along  with  an  adequate  program  In  the  churches,  along 
with  the  acceptance  of  full  responsibility  for  all  direct 
religious  teaching  of  the  young,  it  is  important  that  there 
should  develop  a  sound  opinion  and  social  attitude  as 
to  the  relationships  between  the  churches  and  the  public 
schools  in  educational  matters.  This  necessity  is  the 
prime  reason  for  what  may  seem  to  be  a  long  discussion 
of  a  negative  character.  Every  attempt  to  secure 
religious  ends  by  means  that  are  not  wholly  right  defeats 
those  ends.  Every  attempt  to  evade  the  law  or  to  ignore 
the  civil  and  social  rights  of  all  others  —  no  matter  how 
erroneous  their  creeds  may  seem  to  be  —  only  stirs  divisive 
strife,  obscures  spiritual  purposes  and  hinders  the  realiza- 
tion of  a  united,  spiritual  society.  Besides,  the  agitation 
which  emphasizes  the  values  of  biblical  instruction  in  the 
schools  tends  to  create  an  opinion  that  this  is  the  only 
way  that  religious  values  arise  in  school  life  and  to  lead 
teachers  to  forget  those  means  of  spiritual  influence  and 
leadership  which  do  not  raise  controversial  questions. 

If  we  are  estopped  from  the  use  of  the  Bible  as  a  special 
religious  literature  we  are  not  estopped  from   spiritual 
results  in  the  schools.     All  that  training  which  democracy  j 
involves  and  requires  is  essentially  a  training  of  the  spirit ;  \ 
it  may  be  given  in  the  schools  and  it  must  be  or  they  ' 
fail  of  their  purpose.     No  one  will  accuse  a  school  of 
sectarian  influence  because  it  leads  children  to  love  their 
neighbors  and  to  follow  the  life  of  goodwill  and  service. 
No  one  will  bring  the  charge  of  sectarianism  because  the 
school  aids  children  to  live  the  life  of  truth  and  goodness, 
to  realize  the  ideal  of  a  spiritual  democracy.     The  school , 
IS  expected  to  be  a  force  developing  character  by  reveal- 
ing life,  inspiring  motives,  training  habits  and  quickening 
ideals.     It  cannot  avoid  these  spiritual  duties,  for  it  is 
an  educator  of  those  who  are  spirits,  and  it  either  develops 
a  certain  spirit  of  life  or  it  does  not  train  for  democracy. 


THE  BIBLE  AND  PUBLIC  EDUCATION      S09 

Would  we  not  do  well,  then,  in  the  churches,  to  accept 
our  own  special  share  in  religious  training  and  to  lend 
our  energies  to  aiding  the  school  in  discharging  their  spir- 
itual mission? 


CHAPTER  XVI 

OE6ANIZIN6    THE    COMMUNITY 

Education  for  democracy  will  involve  the  democratiza- 
tion of  our  entire  experience  of  life  under  an  education 
ideal  so  that  all  living  will  be  a  scheme  of  education ;  a 
plan  of  education  undemocratic  in  any  particular  cannot 
train  for  full  democracy. 

Our  institutions  have  been  developed  under  political 
freedom;  they  have  been  modified  by  experience  and  in 
response,  to  some  degree,  to  the  public  will.  A  vital, 
social  aim  is  molding  them  to-day,  but  they  are  far  from 
being  truly  democratic.  For  democracy  implies  more 
than  freedom;  it  implies  purpose,  the  united  action  of 
a  people  for  a  better  society.  No  commanding,  unifying 
purpose  has  been  generally  followed,  nor  have  we  recog- 
nized any  common  principles  under  which  our  varied  edu- 
cational activities  might  be  coordinated.  Our  endeavors 
are  divided  between  homes,  elementary  schools,  high 
schools,  churches,  community  agencies,  colleges  and  uni- 
versities. Some  relationships  have  been  established  be- 
tween the  formal  schools  which  take  the  child  on  from  the 
age  of  six  to  the  end  of  a  college  career.  But  it  would 
be  a  mistake  to  think  of  these  schools  as  constituting  an 
educational  system.  The  public  school  gets  the  child 
when  his  education  is  half  completed ;  by  the  time  he  en- 
ters its  doors  his  life  has  received  its  most  significant 
development.  The  public  schools  have,  as  yet,  little  to 
do  with  the  child's  hours  of  leisure  when  the  process  of 
education  is  most  active,  and  they  are  debarred  from 
formal  endeavors  to  develop  him  as  a  religious  person. 

There  are  those  who  hold  that  the  present  situation  is 

210 


ORGANIZING  THE  COMMUNITY  ^11 

inevitable,  that  it  inheres  in  our  political  freedom.  Cer- 
tainly if  unity  meant  uniformity,  or  if  it  implied  central- 
ized control  we  would  resist  all  efforts  to  coordinate  edu- 
cation. In  spite  of  the  fact  that  popular  education  is  the 
first  duty  of  a  democracy,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  educa- 
tion for  democracy  must  include  all  the  powers  of  life 
and,  to  be  effective,  must  proceed  in  all  its  phases  under 
unifying  social  concepts,  we  do  well  to  make  haste  slowly 
in  the  organization  of  education.  We  are  not  willing, 
in  its  important,  determinative  activity,  that  there  should 
be  so  much  as  the  semblance  of  autocratic  control.  Even 
though  we  might  have  the  power  of  selecting  the  educa- 
tional authorities  we  are  not  ready  to  commit  unreservedly 
to  them  matters  so  vital.  We  fear  the  dead  hand  of  tra- 
dition ;  we  fear  the  tendency  of  fixed  boards  to  become 
dull  and  wooden,  conservative  and  unresponsive  to  the 
public  will ;  most  of  all  we  fear  the  attempt  to  standardize 
processes,  to  establish  arbitrary  fixed  norms  in  matters 
so  vital  as  education  where  the  elements  of  personality 
with  all  its  differences  enters  in  so  largely.  And,  when 
we  seek  to  include  the  elements  of  spiritual  training,  it  is 
difficult  to  conceive  how  any  board,  no  matter  how  broad 
its  intellectual  sympathies  might  be,  could  design  and 
direct  systems  for  all  the  children  of  all  the  people. 

Education  affects  so  directly  the  ideals  and  the  wills 
of  people  that  a  free  nation  will  always  regard  with  sus- 
picion any  attempts  to  establish  centralized  control. 
Free  schools  must  not  only  be  free  from  fees  for  tuition, 
they  must  be  free  to  respond  to  the  public  will.  Germany 
established  control  with  the  indubitable  purpose  of  mold- 
ing a  nation  to  the  inherited  will  of  a  predatory  monarch 
and  a  military  caste,  making  of  a  people  a  single  intelli- 
gence and  will,  automatically  registering  in  response  to 
its  rulers.  The  result  has  been  the  sacrifice  of  freedom, 
the  loss  of  those  spiritual  qualities  upon  which  freedom 
grows  —  free  vision  of  ideals,  virility  of  conscience  and 


212  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

sympathetic  consciousness  of  common  human  rights  — 
and  the  creation  of  the  most  serious  problem  the  mod- 
ern world  has  faced. 

But  centralized  or  autocratic  control  is  not  essential 
to  a  fairly  complete  system  of  education.  Here,  as  else- 
where in  a  free  society,  the  one  thing  needed  is  a  common 
will  based  on  intelligence  and  worthy  purpose.  This  com- 
mon will  would  be  the  universal  standard  in  education. 
It  would  grow  out  of  an  understanding  of  the  social  proc- 
esses of  education,  of  the  needs  of  persons  and  society 
in  a  democracy,  and  the  gradual  establishment  of  minimum 
standards  based  on  the  rights  of  those  being  educated  and 
the  needs  of  society.  The  next  step  would  be  unity  of 
action  in  social  units  to  see  that  in  every  detail  the  needs 
of  society  are  met,  that  existing  activities  are  coordi- 
nated and  provision  is  made  for  whatever  may  be  lacking 
in  our  present  plans. 

The  community  is  the  unit  in  which  it  is  feasible,  and 
natural,  to  secure  educational  unity  and  comprehensive- 
ness. Communities  have  already  learned  to  cooperate  in 
providing  instruction  for  children  through  certain  years. 
The  public  schools  are  demonstrations  of  community  pro- 
grams as  far  as  they  go.  The  group  constituting  a  com- 
munity is  a  working  unit,  conscious  of  its  own  needs,  re- 
sponsive to  these  needs  and  capable  of  meeting  them. 
They  may  constitute  the  units  of  a  larger  and  more  gen- 
eral organization,  the  many  communities  finding  ways  of 
cooperation  through  their  community  of  interests. 

The  first  step  is  for  the  community  to  discover  a  com- 
mon ideal  and  standard  of  education.  It  must  answer  the 
questions.  What  are  the  rights  of  our  children?  What 
are  the  functions  of  children  in  community  life?  ^  What, 
in  view  of  the  future  of  democracy,  is  a  right  program 

1  A  question  answered  in  a  special  study  made  for  the  Religious 
Association  by  Professor  George  A,  Cge,  published  in  Religious  Edu- 
cation for  February,  1918, 


ORGANIZING  THE  COMMUNITY         213 

for  these  children?  It  must  establish  standards  of  com- 
munity life  determined  by  the  rights  of  lives  and  the  needs 
of  democracy  and  not  by  the  exigencies  or  the  greed  of 
business.  In  a  word,  the  community  must  come  to  see 
itself  as  existing  for  democracy  and  as  functioning  by 
education.  Every  community  goes  through  some  of  these 
three  stages  of  progress :  First,  a  recognition  of  exist- 
ence, the  simple  realization  that  a  group  is  being  formed ; 
second,  conscious  purpose  to  enlarge,  strengthen  and 
organize  the  group ;  that  is  the  stage  of  most  communities 
to-day,  and,  third,  consciousness  of  function,  an  awaken- 
ing to  the  question.  What  is  the  ultimate  purpose  of  this 
community?  When  that  stage  is  reached  they  outgrow 
the  old  standards  expressed  in  civic  statistics;  they  are 
not  content  with  the  aims  of  commerce  and  industry,  nor 
can  they  rest  satisfied  with  beautifying  streets  simply 
that  they  may  be  more  beautiful  than  some  other  streets. 
Men  do  not  care  to  live  in  "  Spotless  Town  "  if  all  the 
town  exists  for  is  to  be  spotless.  Better  to  be  in  a  mud- 
hole  trying  to  grow  men  than  on  a  marble  slab  in  a  grave- 
yard. 

THE    PURPOSE    OF    A    COMMUNITY 

The  ideal  commimity  has  specific  purposes.  It  is  a  so- 
cial organization  for  the  sake  of  people.  Gradually  it 
tends  to  interpret  all  its  life  in  terms  of  their  lives.  Its 
programs  of  commercial  development,  schemes  for  the  city- 
beautiful,  parks  and  institutio^s,  laws  and  ordinances,  are 
all  parts  of  its  general  plan  of  growing,  strengthening 
and  directing  lives.  It  finds  its  function,  a  vital  one  — 
dealing  with  persons,  an  educational  one  —  developing 
their  lives,  a  democratic  one  —  associating  them  in  a  com- 
mon life  for  the  good  and  happiness  of  all. 

The  first  and  greatest  contribution  a  community  can 
make  toward  education  for  democracy  will  be  the  develop- 
ment, in  all  its  people,  of  the  habit  of  looking  out  over 


214  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

its  entire  life  and  asking,  Just  how  does  this  or  that  make 
for  the  manhood  and  womanhood  we  need?  Just  how 
does  this  or  that  promote  or  retard  the  common  social 
life  of  goodwill  and  goodness?  This  is  the  growth  of  a 
consciousness  of  function.  It  is  to  think  of  the  township 
or  village  or  ward  as  having  a  definite,  controlling  pur- 
pose, as  existing  in  order  that  people  may  find  the  condi- 
tions most  favorable,  the  stimuli  most  helpful  and  the 
opportunities  of  activity  most  effective  for  the  realization 
of  full  social  living.  y 

The  commwaity  in  a  democracy^  then,  accepts  an  edu- 
cational function.  The  pu/pose  which  finds  expression  in 
the  maintenance  of  public'^chools  penetrates  every  activ- 
ity of  the  community.  Where  a  sense  of  this  responsi- 
bility exists  it  will  organize  itself.  The  local  group  has 
its  machinery  for  civil  government,  but,  at  present,  it 
lacks  organization  for  larger  social  purposes.  It  has  the 
means  of  syndicating  its  resources  to  secure  common  con- 
veniences and  necessities,  such  as  light,  water,  sanitation, 
policing  and  transportation.  But  its  council,  or  govern- 
ing body,  is  concerned  exclusively  with  these  physicalcon- 
ditions  and,  usually,  regards  them  apart  from  their  Rela- 
tionship to  the  higher  life.  Either  the  representative 
body  must  be  directed  by  a  full  consciousness  of  the  pri- 
macy of  the  interests  of  persons,  or,  since  this  is  not 
likely  to  be  possible  because  they  are  chosen  for  other 
ends,  there  must  be  created  another  body  which  will  repre- 
sent the  community  in  its  interests  in  moral  and  spiritual 
well-being. 

Community  direction  for  spiritual  ends  waits  for  the 
formation  of  representative  bodies  chosen  for  their  wisdom 
and  power  in  this  field.  At  present,  no  matter  how  well- 
disposed  the  common  council  may  be,  it  has  been  elected 
to  administer  public  affairs  on  an  economic  basis.  If  it 
provides  for  welfare  it  does  so,  not  because  welfare  is  its 


ORGANIZING  THE  COMMUNITY  216 

primary   concern,  but   because  to  neglect  it   altogether 
would  interfere  with  the  orderly  administration  of  eco- 
nomic affairs  or  might  reflect  on  the  city's  fair  name. 
Votes  are  seldom  determined  by  any  consideration  of  a 
purpose   in   civic   life  —  except   the   purpose   of   keeping 
one  administration  in,  or  getting  another  in.     So  that  we 
do  not  have  an  organization  of  community  life,  but  only 
of  certain  interests.     The  larger  task  waits  for  fitting 
organization.     The  pecuHar  nature  of  the  task,  its  height 
and  breadth,  seem  to  demand  a  special  organization  for 
direction.     Just  as  the  public  has  committed  to  special  \ 
boards  the  care  of  the  parks,  to  others  the  libraries  and  I 
still  others  the  schools,  so  it  may  well  create  a  directing! 
organization   which   will   organize    community   life    as    a  \ 
school  of  democracy. 

Such  an  organization  might  be  called  the  Board,  or  | 
Council  of  Moral  and  Religious  Education.  It  would  be 
better,  as  a  rule,  to  be  less  exact  and  to  call  it  simply 
The  Commimity  Cotmcil.  Then  it  could  direct  its  ener- 
gies toward  moral  and  religious  training.  There  is  noth- 
ing^ew  or  startling  about  this  suggestion.  The  writer 
advocated  it  over  ten  years  ago  and  the  plan  has  been 
a^pted  in  a  number  of  villages.  It  differs  somewhat 
from  the  Maiden  (Mass.)  plan  ^  since  it  calls  for  an  organ- 
ization representative  of  all  the  ideal  interests  which  will 
attempt  the  organization  of  all  the  common  activities  of 
the  community  so  that  they  may  form  a  unitary  pro- 
gram designed  to  develop  character.  The  plan  would 
work  in  complete  harmony  with  the  Community  Center 
organization,  adding  thereto  a  representative  body  which 
would  become  the  agency  through  which  the  Center  would 
carry  forward  its  community  programs  for  ideal  ends. 

The  Commimity  Center  is  a  helpful  and  simple  form 

1  Advocated  and  promoted  by  Professor  Walter  S.  Athearn,  notably 
at  Maiden,  Mass.,  at  Lowell  and  a  number  of  other  places  in  Mass. 


216  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

through  which  community  organization  may  be  realized. 
The  Centers  ^  are  the  natural  development  of  many  ef- 
forts to  secure  active  neighborliness,  growing  out  of  Neigh- 
borhood Clubs,  Open  Forums,  School-Centers,  Parent- 
Teacher  Clubs  and  the  like.  The  plan  is  now  being  pro- 
moted by  state  organizations;  state  universities  are  ap- 
pointing officers  to  develop  its  usefulness;  the  United 
States  Bureau  of  Education  is  aiding  its  application  to 
educational  problems,  and  the  President  of  the  United 
States  wrote  a  letter  urging  the  formation  of  community 
councils.^  The  constitution  proposed  in  the  pamphlet  is- 
sued by  the  Bureau  of  Education  suggests  the  following 
specific  activities:  Forum,  Recreation,  Civics  (informa- 
tion, education,  service),  Home  and  School,  Buying  Club, 
Community  Bank.  The  Centers  may  be  characterized  as 
organizations  to  do  together  all  things  that  can  be  done 
together.  They  are  much  like  town  meetings  that  func- 
tion all  the  time,  that  cover  practically  all  common  inter- 
ests and  that  carry  out  their  own  decrees.  Their  simple, 
democratic  form,  their  high  ideals  and  their  practical 
emphases  are  rich  with  promise.  They  may  be  directed  to 
an  educational  program  for  the  entire  life  of  the  com- 
munity. They  may  be  saturated  with  an  educational 
consciousness  which  recognizes  the  spiritual  needs  of  a 
democracy. 

A    COMMUNITY    COUNCIL 

The  community  needs  democratic  leadership.  As  the 
Center  brings  them  together  they  will  look  for  guidance 
in  work,  instruction  in  community  principles  and  training 
in  method.  Guidance  will  be  needed  to  coordinate  the 
existing  activities  and  to  plan  new  ones.     This  work  of 

1  They  are  described  in  Bulletin  No.  11,  1918,  of  the  U.  S.  Bureau 
of  Education,  "  A  Community  Center,  What  it  is  and  How  to 
Organize  it."     Price   ten   cents. 

2Woodrow  Wilson  in  a  letter  to  the  Councils  of  Defense  in  the 
different  States,  under  date  of  March  13,  1918. 


ORGANIZING  THE  COMMUNITY  217 

leadership  and  coordination  would  belong  to  the  Council. 
It  would  plan  careful  surveys  looking  toward  common 
programs,  toward  the  suppression  of  social  menaces  and 
sources  of  moral  contagion,  to  the  development  of  friendly 
forces  and  agencies  and  to  the  provision  of  ample,  happy 
healthful  recreation,  instruction  and  service. 

Can  such  a  council  provide  for  community  action  in 
religious  education?  There  is  no  doubt  that  it  can  se- 
cure community  action  in  the  most  valuable  forms  of  re- 
ligious development  as  it  makes  recreation,  amusement 
and  social  living  stimulating,  helpful  and  a  means  of  ideal 
social  experience.  This  —  the  life  of  streets,  playgrounds, 
homes  and  social  mingling  —  counts  more  than  all  besides 
in  actually  developing  character.  To  be  surrounded'^ 
with  a  moral  atmosphere  favorable  to  righteousness,  to\ 
social  goodwill,  to  see  constantly  the  object  lesson  of  a 
community  devoted  to  the  good  of  all  is  the  most  effective 
form  of  religious  training.  In  all  that  follows  this  must 
not  be  forgotten.  Yet  children  need  more.  They  need 
that  direct  religious  instruction  which  both  enables  them 
to  interpret  this  atmosphere  and  example  and  to  under- 
stand and  practice  its  methods.  This  direct  instruction 
the  public  schools  cannot  give,  the  homes  either  will  not 
or  cannot,  and  the  churches,  at  present,  devote  less  than 
an  hour  a  week  to  giving  small  groups  instruction  at  the 
hands  of  amateurs.  The  churches  reach  fewer  than  forty 
per  cent,  of  the  children ;  their  instruction  in  the  Sunday 
schools  is  an  antithesis  of  that  to  which  they  are  accus- 
tomed and,  being  given  in  church  groups,  it  tends  to  set 
off  this  instruction  from  the  united  community  life.  If 
we  are  to  make  democracy  a  spiritual  experience  for  the 
child  we  must  make  his  religious  experience  in  instruc- 
tion truly  democratic ;  it  must  become  a  part  of  his  com- 
munity life.  It  must  have  a  larger  share  of  his  time,  for 
it  is  manifestly  impossible  to  learn  anything  in  from  forty 
to  fifty  periods  of  thirty-five  minutes  each  a  year,  espe- 


218  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

cially  when,  as  a  rule,  these  do  not  occur  under  school 
conditions.  It  must  have  a  larger  share  of  his  active 
experience,  for  instruction  standing  alone  can  accomplish 
little ;  it  must  be  so  organized  as  to  become  a  part  of 
his  everyday  living  in  the  social  group;  it  must  go  on, 
under  normal  conditions,  into  his  play  and  work. 

Adequate  religious  instruction  is  impossible  under  the 
program  of  the  present  typical  Sunday  school.  It  is  as 
impossible  as  general  education  would  be  if  all  the  children 
were  divided  into  sectarian  groups,  limited  to  one  period 
a  week  and  left  without  financial  support  or  proper  su- 
pervision. Even  though  general  education  were  possible 
in  parish  schools  education  for  democracy  would  not  be 
possible  there.  The  young  cannot  learn  the  life  of  de- 
mocracy in  caste  and  class  institutions.  It  is  as  necessary 
that  religious  instruction  be  democratic  as  that  general 
instruction  should  have  that  character.  So  long  as  the 
religious  instruction  is  disassociated  from  a  genuine  com- 
munity experience  there  will  be  difficulty  in  carrying  over 
that  instruction  into  practical  community  living.  The 
effect  of  confining  the  teaching  of  religion  to  churches  is 
often  an  impression  that  the  practice  of  religion  is  con- 
fined to  the  same  area. 

The  present  Sunday  school  is  wastefully  inadequate. 
The  system  of  independent  small  groups,  each  school 
teaching  a  series  of  smaller  groups,  each  maintaining  its 
own  staff  and  equipment  is  not  only  bad  as  it  divides 
social  life  but  it  is  exceedingly  wasteful.  This  is  discov- 
ered as  soon  as  it  is  attempted  to  place  a  church  school 
on  a  plane  of  educational  efficiency.  It  costs  almost  as 
much  as  though  each  school  were  attempting  to  meet  the 
needs  of  all  the  children  of  a  community.  There  is  fur- 
ther waste  in  current  plans  as  they  lay  on  the  community 
the  strain  of  a  peak-load  of  religious  instruction  on  one 
hour  of  each  week  with  absolutely  no  load  all  through  the 
rest  of  the  week.     That  is  as  economically  wasteful  as  a 


ORGANIZING  THE  COMMUNITY  ^19 

system  of  street  cars  designed  to  carry  the  entire  popu- 
lation to  Sunday  morning  service  and  to  lie  idle  all  the 
rest  of  the  week. 

The  inadequacy  of  the  present  Sunday  school  for  the 
community's  need  for  religious  training  is  due  largely 
to  the  fact  that  the  school  is  an  inheritance  rather  than 
a  designed  institution.  It  was  planned  for  quite  other 
work  than  it  now  seeks  to  perform.  It  has  been  devel- 
oped in  a  manner  that  carries  over  much  obsolete  ma- 
chinery and  maintains  impossible  limitations.  It  is  still 
conscious  only  of  a  duty  to  give  the  young  instruction 
about  the  Bible  rather  than  to  give  training  in  living  a 
religious  life  in  a  democracy.  It  still  lacks  any  con- 
sciousness of  a  community  mission.  It  is  conceived  in 
ecclesiastical  terms  rather  than  in  terms  of  a  democracy 
of  the  spirit. 

Our  complex  social  order  makes  vastly  increased  de- 
mands on  children.  Living  is  more  complicated;  life's 
moral  strain  is  more  intense.  And,  much  more  exacting 
than  any  current  conditions,  than  any  struggle  for  per- 
sonal goodness,  are  the  demands  of  our  own  social  ideals. 
This  day  calls  for  men  and  women  who  can  make  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  a  current  reality.  Our  vision  of  a 
democracy  of  the  spirit  must  come  down  to  the  practical 
terms  of  living,  of  industry  and  social  intercourse.  But 
that  vision  cannot  become  an  actuality  by  means  of  gen- 
eralized hopes;  it  requires  both  trained  spirits  and  par- 
ticularized efficiencies  in  methods.  The  inadequacy  of 
our  present  plans  becomes  evident  when  we  realize  that 
we  seek,  through  religious  training,  the  preparation  of 
the  child  for  the  great  problems  of  democracy,  for  life  in 
this  polarized  world,  that  we  hope  he  can  learn  to  live 
on  the  plane  of  spiritual  values  with  others  and  to  make 
this  a  world  guided  by  the  life  of  the  spirit.  Can  that  be 
done  by  separating  the  children  into  little  groups  to  listen 
to  often  aimless  talks  for  thirty  minutes  every  Sunday? 


220  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

In  a  word,  we  need  a  new  religious  education.  Are  we 
ready  for  its  broader  program?  Are  we  ready,  in  the 
'  light  of  the  needs  of  democracy,  animated  by  the  hope  of 
a  spiritual  society,  to  take  the  steps  necessary  to  furnish 
a  full  program  of  religious  training?  Are  we  ready  to 
tear  down  and  to  build  anew,  instead  of  patching  here 
and  there,  building  now  according  to  the  demands  of  our 
day  and  the  promise  of  a  kingdom  of  God?  Such  a  pro- 
gram is  possible  only  as  it  is  conceived  in  terms  of  the 
life  of  all  the  people  and  carried  out  on  a  common  pro- 
gram for  all  who  are  willing  to  unite  in  it. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

A    COMMUNITY    PROGEAM 

If  the  community  is  the  unit  through  which  we  must 
seek  to  secure  an  extension  of  religious  training  in  prepa- 
ration for  the  hfe  of  democracy  what  are  the  steps  neces- 
sary to  organize  a  community  program? 

First,  to  convert  the  religious  agencies  to  a  democratic 
spirit.  The  churches  are  insisting  that  Jesus  was  the 
world's  great  democrat,  but  frequently  they  are  more 
brahmanistic  than  democratic ;  they  tend  to  separate  peo- 
ple into  more  or  less  self-satisfied  groups ;  they  afford  chil- 
dren only  a  special  sect  experience  in  education.  If  reli- 
gious experience  is  to  be  effective  for  democracy  it  must 
itself  be  democratic.  Caste  experience  in  training  is  not 
training  for  a  common,  social  life. 

What  can  be  done.^  Would  our  churches  be  any  less 
attractive  or  their  membership  any  smaller  if,  instead  of 
planning  the  religious  training  of  the  young  as  a  scheme 
of  recruiting  their  own  organizations,  it  should  be  ar- 
ranged primarily  as  a  preparation  for  a  spiritual  society, 
a  religious  democracy.?  Such  a  plan  would  not  only  en- 
rich the  curriculum  as  to  its  practical  content  but  it 
would  thoroughly  socialize  all  the  experience  of  children 
in  their  church  schools.  It  would  make  the  school  of 
religion  an  actual  experience  in  living  in  a  common  so- 
ciety. Even  though  the  school  could  not  include  always 
the  entire  community  —  though  that  would  be  a  desirable 
aim  —  it  would  be  so  representative  that  to  be  in  it  would 
be  to  realize  community  living.  It  is  to  be  doubted  if  we 
can  hope  to  spiritualize  community  life  until  we  have 
thoroughly  socialized  religious  life. 

221 


EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

The  religious  organizations  of  the  community  need, 
next,  such  an  impressive,  intelligent  understanding  of  the 
requirements  of  their  village  or  neighborhood  as  shall  com- 
pel the  development  or  remaking  of  present  methods  un- 
til they  shall  be  adequate  to  the  task  of  reaching  all  the 
children  and  reaching  all  their  needs  in  the  spiritual  life. 
Tf  we  really  believe  that  it  is  essential  for  every  child  that 
he  have  proper  religious  training  we  will  not  permit  tra- 
ditions, sectarian  divergencies  nor  ecclesiastical  interests 
to  stand  in  the  way  of  the  children's  rights.  If  we  take 
rJigious  education  as  seriously  as  we  have  taken  general 
education  we  will  find  a  way  just  as  we  have  found  a  wa^ 
in  spite  of  all  the  difficulties  with  public  education.  If  | 
we  have  any  regard  for  the  fully  sixty  per  cent,  of  the 
child  population  not  now  reached  by  the  church  schools 
we  will  confess  our  present  failures  and  take  up  this  pr»h- 
lem  with  open-minded  seriousness.  Moreover,  if  we  have 
looked  squarely  at  our  present  systems  and  have  realized 
how  little  fruitage  they  bear  in  the  realities  of  life,  how 
little  they  have  to  do  with  the  making  of  our  social  order 
or  with  determining  the  character  of  a  community,  we  will 
be  anxious  to  discover  and  apply  plans  of  religious  train- 
ing that  will  have  some  effect  on  life.  The  present  situa- 
tion is  that,  in  spite  of  many  organizations,  much  serious 
effort  and  much  money  expended,  we  have  a  task  but 
partially  accomplished  and  that  only  for  a  few. 

Before  a  solution  of  the  problem  is  possible,  however, 
we  need  cm  awakened  community,  one  with  a  sense  of  re- 
sponsibility for  the  spiritual  in  its  life.  Communities  are 
accepting  responsibilities  for  the  lives  of  people ;  can  they 
evade  responsibility  for  any  part  of  life?  If  they  are 
responsible  for  health,  why  not  for  health  of  mind?  If 
they  accept  responsibility  for  conduct  can  they  avoid 
responsibility  for  character?  This  does  not  mean  that 
communities  will  formally  adopt  religious  professions  or 
creeds.     But  they  are  adopting  creeds  which  are  essen- 


A  COMMUNITY  PROGRAM  2^3 

tially  religious.  They  even  publish  these  creeds,  such  as 
"  We  believe  it  is  our  duty  to  make  the  best  pos- 
sible place  to  live  in.  We  place  first  the  interests  of  our 
children,  health  before  commerce,"  etc.  Such  professions, 
whether  stated  formally  or  not,  imply  the  acceptance  of 
responsibility  for  the  full  development  of  every  life. 
When  we  stop  to  think  we  know  that  our  communities 
exist  for  ends  not  to  be  expressed  in  statistics  of  the 
census,  in  wealth  or  in  size.  If  they  care  only  for  our 
bodies  of  what  worth  is  it  to  make  us  healthy  brutes 
only  to  gore  and  devour  in  their  rich  and  beautiful  pas- 
tures.'^ The  community  has  a  ctire  for  souls  because  it 
exists  for  persons. 

The  religious  responsibility  of  the  community  does  not 
interfere  with  the  freedom  of  the  churches.  It  does  not 
dictate  their  views  or  their  tasks.  It  does  not  deprive 
them  of  their  work  of  religious  education.  But  it  accepts 
a  responsibility  to  make  it*  possible  for  the  spiritual 
agencies,  whether  churches  or  families,  to  do  their  full 
work.  In  its  program  of  coordination  of  agencies  it 
recognizes  the  churches  and  their  functions  and  calls  on 
the  entire  community  to  stand  back  of  all  agencies  that 
support  and  develop  the  religious  life. 

Community  cooperation  at  feasible  tasks  is  the  next 
step ;  there  are  things  which  all  the  people  of  a  community 
can  do  together  in  the  field  of  religious  service.  Just  how 
easy  it  has  been  for  all  the  people,  regardless  of  creedal 
affiliations,  or  of  none,  to  work  together  in  social  serv- 
ice, in  deeds  expressive  of  high  religious  purpose  has  been 
demonstrated  during  the  period  of  the  great  war.  In  a 
like  mood  other  needs  are  met  when  their  seriousness  is 
realized.  One  of  the  tasks  at  which  it  has  been  proven 
i  it  is  possible  to  secure  community  cooperation  is  that  of 
I  week-day  instruction  of  children  in  religion.  Back  of  all 
efforts  in  this  direction  lies  the  long  agitation  for  reli- 
gious teaching  in  public  schools,  and  back  of  that  even 


S24  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

the  common  custom  of  such  teaching;  then  there  is  also 
the  growing  recognition  of  the  inadequacy  of  the  present 
church  school  even  under  the  best  of  conditions.  Seek- 
ing to  provide  a  larger  measure  of  instruction  in  religion 
schools  have  been  established  which  meet  during  the  week, 
often  with  programs  of  instruction  providing  from  two 
to  three  hours  of  regular  work  for  all  pupils  in  the  ele- 
mentary schools  who  care  to  attend.  Some  of  the  schools 
have  trained,  professional  teachers  devoting  their  entire 
time  under  regular  salary  contracts,  their  work  being 
guided  by  expert  supervisors. 

WEEK-DAY    RELIGIOUS    INSTRUCTION 

Week-day  instruction  develops  as  a  community  enter- 
prise. At  first  it  was  assumed  that  all  that  was  neces- 
sary was  to  extend  the  time  program  of  the  Sunday  school 
into  the  week.  But  it  soon  became  evident  that  this  meant 
only  spreading  the  present  inefficient  efforts  over  a  larger 
area  of  time,  with  the  same  purely  amateur  workers  and 
the  same  results  as  before.  It  involved,  also,  no  exten- 
sion as  to  persons  reached;  the  schools  were  simply  Sun- 
day schools  meeting  in  the  week.  We  have  abandoned 
the  church-school  extension  plan  and  are  now  coming  to 
think  of  week-day  instruction  in  terms  of  the  community, 

Eot  only  that  all  the  children  of  the  community  may  be 
eached  but  that  we  have  here  what  may  be  a  community 
aterprise.  The  two  current  general  ideals  have  been 
well  presented  in  two  recent  books.  Dr.  B.  S.  Winches- 
ter has  presented  the  argument  for  one  method,^  the  fed- 
eration of  the  churches  in  a  community  so  as  to  provide 
and  conduct  a  school  or  schools,  meeting  during  the  week 
and  giving  religious  instruction.     Prof.  W.   S.  Athearn 

1  In  "  Religious  Education  and  Democracy,"  a  report  presented 
to  The  Federal  Council  of  Churches  in  America,  Dec,  1916,  published 
in  book  form  by  the  Abingdon  Press,  1917. 


A  COMMUNITY  PROGRAM  226 

has  presented  another  method,^  that  of  organizing  in  the 
community  a  special  Council  of  Religious  Education,  in- 
. dependent  of  the  churches.  He  has  conducted  a  number 
of  enterprises  for  the  training  of  church-school  workers 
under  his  plan.  He  especially  urges  the  inability  of  the 
churches  to  carry  forward  common  enterprises  of  an  edu- 
cational character.  Two  things  seem  to  be  certain: 
First,  that  the  local  federations  of  churches  cannot  meet 
the  needs  of  the  communities  in  religious  training;  they 
have,  usually,  no  developed  educational  expertness;  they 
represent  only  certain  sections  of  organized  religion  in 
a  community,  and  they  have,  as  yet,  no  programs  for  re- 
ligious education.  Second,  a  community  enterprise  in 
religious  training  must  have  the  leadership  of  its  churches. 
It  cannot  be  conducted  independently  of  them ;  to  attempt 
this  is  to  ignore  the  basic  principle  of  using  the  natural 
existing  social  groups;  it  is  to  create  another  religious 
agency  and  to  attempt  to  separate  the  churches  from  their 
most  important  task,  the  training  of  the  young. 

Do  we  then  stand  at  an  impasse;  the  churches  cannot 
do  this  work  and  no  one  else  ought  to  do  it.'^  Not  at  all. 
First,  we  have  been  confounding  two  parts  of  this  enter-j 
prise,  the  function  of  the  church  to  train  all  its  young\ 
lives  and  the  function  of  the  community  to  make  it  pos- 
sible for  every  life  to  receive  religious  training.  The 
churches  cannot  leave  to  the  community  responsibility 
for  instruction;  the  community  cannot  leave  to  the! 
churches  its  responsibility  for  conditions  and  social  or-] 
ganization  favorable  to  instruction.  Second,  we  are  con- 
fused because  we  are  still  thinking  of  a  Sunday  school 
magnified  into  a  week-day  affair  while  we  ought  to  go  on 
to  think  of  the  community  accepting  its  responsibility  for 
the  whole  of  life,  making  provision  in  plant  and  program 

iln   "Religious    Education   and   American   Democracy,"   Pilgrim 
Press,  1»17. 


«86  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

for  all,  while  the  churches  accept  the  challenge  of  the 
community,  enter  into  the  program,  use  the  plant  and 
discharge  the  duty  which  is  specifically  committed  to  them. 

Where  the  community  council  is  alive  to  the  religious 
needs  of  life,  to  the  place  of  the  spiritual,  it  will  be  quick 
to  furnish  the  plant  and  equipment  for  instruction. 
Where  the  churches  are  alive  to  their  real  work  they  will 
be  able  to  forget  differences  and  to  work  together  in  the 
use  of  the  community  plant.  The  important  thing  to  do 
is  to  develop  a  sense  of  community  responsibility  parallel 
in  this  field  to  that  which  is  now  felt  for  general  educa- 
tion. 

To  be  specific,  we  are  recommending  that  when  the 
Community  Council  has  been  organized,  representing  all 
the  churches  and  higher  interests,  it  begins  to  provide 
suitable  buildings  which  can  be  used  all  through  the  week 
for  instruction  in  religion  and  for  such  training  as  the 
churches  may  desire  to  give.  Common  provision  for 
school  plants  would  involve  a  community-organized  pro- 
gram but  it  would  not  at  all  involve  community  control 
of  teaching.  Each  church  would  be  as  free  as  ever  in 
this  respect.  The  community  has  no  more  dictation  over 
the  teaching  of  any  church  in  its  common  building  than 
it  had  when  it  provided  separate  buildings.  Just  as  the 
community  in  furnishing  common  facilities  of  communi- 
cation in  the  streets  cannot  dictate  our  motives  in  walk- 
ing but  leaves  us  free  so  long  as  we  respect  the  social 
rights  of  others,  so  in  the  community  school  of  religion 
there  would  be  freedom  under  social  obligations. 

It  is  not  at  all  inconceivable  that  the  community  shall 
do  three  things:  recognizing  the  child's  need  it  shall  so 
arrange  its  general  time-schedule  that  all  the  young  may 
have  opportunity  for  religious  instruction  and  training; 
next,  provide  the  necessary  facilities  which  shall  be  at 
the  disposal  of  all,  and,  then,  use  its  existing  educational 
agencies,    or,    if   necessary,    provide   others    to    give    the 


A  COMMUNITY  PROGRAM  2^7 

proper  technical  training  to  those  who  are  to  instruct  the 
young. 

The  time-schedule  is  no  small  part  of  the  problem 
everywhere.  The  curriculum  of  the  school  has  been  so 
enlarged  and  its  field  of  activities  so  extended  that  young 
people  are  likely  to  find  every  hour  occupied  with  either 
school-work,  home-work,  school-supervised  recreation  or. 
the  school's  social  life.  Now  no  single  aspect  of  life  ought 
to  monopolize  the  child's  program.  Yet  there  are  chil- 
dren who  for  five  days  from  rising  to  sleeping  have  a 
schedule  of  nothing  but  school  work.  They  are  entitled 
to  time  for  the  free  life  of  the  family,  for  their  own  social 
groups,  -for  the  life  of  the  spirit.  The  coordination  and 
adjustment  of  the  now  overlapping  and  competing  parts 
of  a  time  program  will  be  one  of  the  first  problems  for 
the  community  council.  It  is  quite  possible  for  a  neigh- 
borhood to  come  to  an  agreement  that  certain  hours  be- 
long to  certain  plans,  to  end  the  present  wild  competition 
for  youth's  leisure  and  to  arrange  and  carry  out  a  pro- 
gram which  would  leave  no  empty  hours  and  none  in  which 
a  dozen  agencies  distract  our  energies. 

A    COMMUNITY    BUILDING    FOR    RELIGION 

The  matter  of  provision  of  facilities  is  not  a  difficult 
one.  We  already  have  community  schools  everywhere, 
and,  in  many  places,  community  parks,  recreation  grounds, 
concert  and  lecture  halls  and  film  theatres.  Is  it  im- 
possible to  have  a  building  with  the  necessary  class  rooms 
and  meeting  places  which  any  religious  body  shall  be  free 
to  use  for  purposes  of  instruction?  Such  a  building 
ought  to  be  the  voluntary  enterprise  of  the  community, 
neither  erected  nor  supported  by  taxation.  None  should 
be  forced  to  pay;  the  compulsion  should  be  that  of  the 
democratic  conscience.  It  would  be  erected  and  main- 
tained by  the  community  council  by  funds  freely  con- 
tributed.    The  building  need  not  be  as  large  as  the  public 


828  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

school  because  it  need  not  receive  all  the  children  at  any 
one  time.  If,  for  the  sake  of  illustration,  we  agree  that 
the  time  spent  in  classes  in  religion  should  be  related  to 
time  spent  in  general  education  as  one  is  to  six  then  the 
community  religious  plant  could  have  approximately  one- 
sixth  of  the  pupil  accommodations  needed  in  the  other 
school.  Some  latitude  would  be  necessary  for  maintain- 
ing a  larger  number  of  classes  proportionately,  while  the 
ratio  would  depend  on  whether  the  public  school  had 
proper,  modem  facilities.  But  probably  all  the  children 
in  a  sixteen-room  building  in  the  public  schools  could  pass 
through  four  periods  each  a  week  in  a  four-room  school 
of  religion.  This  must  not  leave  the  impression  that  the 
only  or  the  principal  activity  of  the  community  school 
of  religion  will  be  instruction:  classes  may  not  be  nearly 
as  important  as  directed  activities. 

Programs  would  be  arranged  by  agreement  so  that  the 
facilities  of  the  building  would  be  in  use  practically  all 
the  time.  The  building  could  be  used  for  many  com- 
munity purposes,  such  as  night-classes,  lectures,  social 
gatherings,  community  dances,  community  sewing  and  re- 
lief work.  Naturally  it  would  be  the  home  of  the  com- 
munity center,  the  plant  from  which  all  its  work  would 
be  carried  on.  It  would  stand  in  the  community  the  cen- 
ter of  its  life  of  spiritual  purpose  as  the  public  school 
stands  the  center  of  its  life  of  intellectual  purpose;  but 
the  two  purposes  would  never  be  separated. 

The  need  for  a  plant  of  this  kind  needs  no  emphasis, 
not  only  because  of  the  inadequacy  of  church  edifices  for 
instructional  purposes  but  from  the  present  dispersion 
of  the  many  activities  of  the  community  which  should 
find  a  home  here.  The  public  school  has  opened  its  doors 
to  the  community  center;  in  many  places  it  will  long  be 
the  center  of  neighborhood  activities,  but  it  has  not  been 
planned  for  the  type  of  work  advocated  here;  it  is  free 
only  in  the  evening  hours  and  often  it  finds  community 


A  COMMUNITY  PROGRAM  829 

service  an  embarrassing  guest.  The  community  needs  a 
special  plant  and,  in  securing  the  religious  educational 
building,  could  design  it  with  reference  to  the  larger 
needs  of  the  center  and  the  cooperative  work  of  the  com- 
munity. 

Will  the  churches  find  it  possible  to  agree  in  the  use  of 
a  community  educational  building?  If  religion  cannot 
exercise  social  coordination  it  needs  conversion.  But 
churches  are  agreeing  to  the  common  use  of  plants,  even 
to  using  them  for  preaching  and  services  of  worship.  In 
the  instance  proposed  they  know  they  would  be  the  losers 
unless  they  could  fit  into  the  community  plan.  Indeed 
such  a  plan  might  prove  to  be  a  means  of  religious  edu- 
cation to  some  churches.  It  would  force  them  to  look 
beyond  their  own  groups;  it  would  make  them  conscious 
of  all  the  children  of  the  community  and  of  other  forces 
working  therein;  it  would  compel  cooperation.  It  would 
be  a  simple  but  signal  step  toward  that  unity  of  purpose 
for  which  all  long. 

This  plan  does  not  assume  that  only  the  so-called  evan- 
gelical churches,  or  only  the  Protestant  churches,  or  even 
only  the  Christian  churches  would  have  a  share  in  the  use 
of  the  building  proposed.  The  community  cannot  distin- 
guish. It  is  responsible  for  the  success  of  no  particular 
group,  but  for  the  success  of  every  group  making  good 
citizens.  Its  attitude  should  be  the  same  to  one  as  to 
another.  Nor  does  any  church  in  using  this  building 
sacrifice  or  attenuate  its  own  faith.  It  simply  respects 
the  civil  rights  which  all  hold  in  a  democracy  and  the 
consequent  social  obligations  of  respect  which  each  must 
have  for  all  others.  It  accepts  the  cooperation  of  the 
community  in  the  discharge  of  those  special  responsibili- 
ties which  it  has  in  regard  to  the  instruction  of  its  own 
youth.  ■     i'  '  •■!  W-f^ 

Religious  cooperation  is  much  nearer  than  we  some- 
times think.     The  old  rancors  and  feuds  lie  in  our  mem- 


880  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

ory  more  than  in  the  hearts  of  religious  leaders  to-day. 
Perhaps  churches  assume  a  bellicose  attitude  toward  one 
another  because  that  is  what  we  expect  them  to  do. 
Groups  are  more  likely  to  find  cooperation  possible  in 
large  enterprises  than  in  trifling  ones.  In  our  new  spirit 
of  social  unity  in  the  face  of  great  world  problems  there 
ought  to  be  found  the  possibility  of  a  cooperative  spirit 
sufficient  to  make  the  community  school  ecclesiastically 
feasible. 

Provision  for  technical  training  of  workers  in  religious 
education  in  the  community  school  is  not  predicated  en- 
tirely on  the  present  program  which  calls  once  a  week  for 
a  large  number  of  unskilled  workers.  Given  the  com- 
munity plant  and  program,  with  the  work  of  the  school 
scheduled  through  the  week,  fewer  workers  will  be  needed 
by  each  church  and  it  will  be  possible  to  use  those  who 
have  had  expert  training  and  who  are  professionally  em- 
ployed. But,  just  as  we  ought  to  have,  in  every  com- 
munity, provision  for  the  continuous  training,  the  inspi- 
ration and  professional  development  of  public-school 
teachers,  so  we  will  need  provision  for  the  educational 
nurture  of  the  staff  of  the  proposed  school.  This  task 
the  community  may  attempt  directly,  for  no  creedal  or 
sectarian  differences  enter  into  the  science  of  education. 
No  city  would  step  beyond  its  proper  province  if  it  should 
provide  a  course  of  lectures  or  arrange  a  regular  cur- 
riculum of  classes  for  those  who  desired  to  learn  how  to 
guide  the  development  of  children  in  religious  character. 
The  principles  of  education  would  be  the  same  for  all 
teachers  whatever  church  they  might  support,  and  the 
principles  of  ideal  development  would  hold  even  for  those 
who  cared  for  none  at  all. 

It  is  too  early  to  attempt  all  the  details  of  this  plan,^ 

1  For  a  survey  of  experiments  of  this  type  see  the  various  pub- 
lications of  The  Religious  Education  Association,  and,  for  a  succinct 
outline.  Bulletin  No.  13,  Week-Day  Religious  Education,  free,  from 
The  American  Baptist  Publication  Society. 


A  COMMUNITY  PROGRAM  231 

and  one  must  remember  Portia's  words  on  the  relative 
ease  of  telling  how  it  were  done  compared  with  doing  it, 
but  certain  it  is  that  it  never  will  be  done  unless  we  enter- 
tain the  vision  and  make  the  attempt.  The  principal  is- 
sue is  that  we  shall  recognize  the  responsibility  of  the 
entire  community  for  the  development  of  the  spiritual  life 
of  all  its  people.  Then  we  shall  apply  this  principle  at 
the  point  where  application  is  now  most  feasible,  and  also 
most  important,  at  that  of  training  the  young.  We  shall 
seek  to  move  as  united,  cooperating  communities  and  we 
shall  expect  all  formal  plans  and  mechanisms  to  grow  out 
of  the  ideal  of  the  organization  of  the  entire  life  of  the 
community  for  the  purpose  of  developing  spiritually 
minded  citizens. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

THE    FUNCTION    OF    A    COLLEGE    IN    A    DEMOCRACY 

Democracy  constantly  seeks  the  improvement  of  the 
type  of  life;  it  is  not  blind  to  the  biological  law  that  the 
higher  the  type  the  longer  its  period  of  development.  A 
fly  reaches  maturity  in  a  few  hours ;  man  allows  his  young 
many  years  and  increasingly  realizes  that  life  itself  is  too 
short  to  attain  full,  all-round  maturity.  And  civilization, 
that  is  man  organized  as  society,  sets  aside  ever  length- 
ening periods  for  the  preparation  of  youth  for  its  life. 
The  college  and  university  are  our  modern  extensions  of 
the  formal  periods  of  youth's  preparation. 

Democracy  extends  the  period  of  infancy.  Because  de- 
mocracy exists  that  lives  may  develop  it  not  only  sets 
about  those  lives  many  forms  of  protection  in  their  early 
stages  of  dependence  but  it  extends  the  time  in  which 
development  is  fostered  by  society.  The  rapid  develop- 
ment of  colleges,  their  articulation  with  systems  of  public 
instruction  and  the  increase  in  the  proportions  of  the 
population  receiving  higher  education  all  point  to  the 
ideal  of  democracy,  a  condition  under  which  all  persons 
shall  be  free  to  receive  formal  training  through  the  entire 
period  of  youth.  This  does  not  imply  that  all  will  re- 
ceive the  entire  curriculum  of  the  typical  college;  it  does 
imply  that  society  will  provide  for  all  youth  training  de- 
signed according  to  their  needs.  The  college  is  one  of 
democracy's  mechanisms  for  directing  personal  develop- 
ment. 

Democracy  expects  that  this  extension  of  training  shall 

be  for  the  enriching  of  its  entire  life.     It  expects  that 

those  who  are  trained  will  become  servants ;  it  hopes  for 

232 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  A  COLLEGE       .  233 

three  experiences :  the  development  of  the  powers  of  indi- 
viduals, their  social  awakening,  adjustment  and  efficiency 
and  the  discovery  of  a  social  motive  in  the  meaning  of 
life.  College  life  is  more  than  an  extension  of  the  fields 
of  learning ;  it  is  an  experience  in  new  ways  of  living.  It 
affords  a  life  under  special  stimuli  and  advantages.  It 
affords  freedom  for  the  development  of  powers  at  the 
time  when  social  consciousness  is  growing,  when  ideals  are 
most  potent.  It  should  result  in  a  life  controlled  by 
ideals  and  devoted  to  democracy's  purposes. 

How  can  the  college  develop  the  motives  and  form  the 
ideals  of  democracy?  The  college  is  the  home  of  social 
idealism.  A  large  number  of  instructors  are  democratic 
idealists.  Its  courses  in  social  sciences  are  often  regarded 
as  dangerous  by  those  whose  interests  demand  the  preser- 
vation of  ancient  forms  of  social  injustice  or  who  would 
hold  society  in  status  quo  so  that  they  might  continue 
its  exploitation.  The  principles  and  the  methods  of 
democratic  living  are  both  taught  in  college.  Campus  life 
is  often  a  high  demonstration  of  very  simple  democracy 
and  frequently  enduring  social  motives  come  to  youth 
through  this  experience.  All  that  is  needed  is  to  bring 
the  social  idealism  of  the  college  to  its  logical  complete- 
ness, to  see  and  apply  it  as  a  plan  of  life  and  to  develop 
the  motives  and  emotions  sufficient  to  carry  it  over  into 
life.  For  the  purposes  of  democracy  the  social  idealism 
of  the  college  must  be  vitalized  into  action  and  unified 
under  the  ideals  and  habits  of  the  life  of  love  and  service. 
College  life  must  become  a  spiritual  experience  in  devotion 
to  democracy. 

The  college  student  needs  not  alone  to  know  the  mech- 
anism of  democracy,  nor  alone  to  see  its  ideals,  but,  also, 
to  acquire  its  motives.  The  problem  of  higher  education 
is  less  one  of  information  than  of  motivation.  How  can 
we  be  sure  that  these  young  men  and  women,  the  social 
leaders  of  to-morrow,  will  retaiin  their  ideajs,  will  return 


234  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

to  us  fully  willing  to  pay  the  price  of  democracy,  so  satis- 
fied of  its  high  ends  that  to  them  the  life  of  devotion  to 
the  good  of  all  will  be  the  only  reasonable  and  possible 
life? 

The  training  of  the  spirit  is  the  central  purpose  of  the 
college  in  its  service  for  democracy.  Here  we  have  a  spe- 
cial application  of  the  principle  that,  in  view  of  the  spir- 
itual aims  of  a  democracy  and  the  spiritual  demands  it 
makes  on  people,  its  first  need  is  that  of  religious  educa- 
tion. Nowhere  is  that  training  more  needed  than  in  the 
years  of  the  extension  of  education  in  the  college.  Yet 
this  is  the  aspect  of  life  which  the  colleges  have  most  neg- 
lected. Young  people  graduate  alert,  fairly  intelligent, 
enthusiastic  and  idealistic,  yet  without  consciousness  of 
the  religious  meaning  and  motif  of  life.  Their  idealism 
does  not  carry  over  into  the  practice  of  democracy. 
They  have  converted  industry  to  scientific  methods  much 
more  successfully  than  they  have  converted  society  to 
democracy.  They  are  not  especially  marked  as  a  class 
in  leadership  in  social  service  and  progress.  Is  this  not 
because  the  college  leaves  social  training  incomplete?  It 
does  not  treat  social  studies  as  dealing  with  a  mode  of 
life  and  a  faith  for  society.  It  gives  youth  a  vision  of  so- 
ciety reorganized,  but  it  fails  to  connect  the  program 
of  reorganization  to  those  ideals,  devotions  and  activities 
which  constitute  the  motives  of  life  to  the  young.  It  does 
not  connect  their  faith  with  a  program  of  service. 

Yet  the  college  years  are  peculiarly  those  in  which  train- 
ing for  democracy  must  involve  a  religious  experience. 
They  are  the  years  in  which  life  gets  its  bent,  in  which 
men  acquire  motives  deep  enough  to  hold  when  the  lesser 
prizes  promise  so  much,  the  years  when  we  establish  hab- 
its of  devotion  to  ends  which  are  ideal  but  which  no  cold 
reasoning  can  ever  take  from  us.  They  are  the  years 
of  opportunity  for  true  teachers  to  help  youth  discover 
life's  meaning  in  terms   of  its  highest  values   and  life's 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  A  COLLEGE         235 

method  as  devotion  to  the  realization  of  those  values  in 
the  lives  of  all.  If  the  college  fails  to  do  this  it  may  be 
a  great  instructional  agency  but  it  is  not  an  educational 
one;  it  is  mistaking  extension  for  elevation.  It  must  re- 
veal the  spiritual  nature  and  the  social  method  of  de- 
mocracy or  it  is  not  carrying  out  its  part  in  extending 
the  period  of  life  training  for  the  young.  It  has  to  de- 
velop the  lives  of  persons  for  social  ends  and  these  ends 
involve  motives  that  must  be  based  on  spiritual  meanings 
in  life.  The  primary  responsibility  of  the  college  lies, 
then,  in  the  field  of  religious  training. 

THE    COL.I.EGES    AJND    RELIGION 

Historically  the  American  college  grew  out  of  religious 
convictions.  The  first  colleges  were  organized  by  reli- 
gious persons  for  religious  purposes.  Their  charters  fre- 
quently expressly  stated  those  purposes.  The  early  col- 
leges were  poor  in  money,  limited  in  curricula  and  small 
in  enrollment,  but  they  were  mighty  in  one  respect,  they 
stamped  the  leadership  of  America  with  idealism.  To- 
day the  colleges  are  rich,  with  widely  inclusive  curricula 
and  with  immense  bodies  of  students  —  and  one  of  the 
practical,  puzzling  questions  of  their  executives  is.  What 
is  the  place  of  religion  in  the  college?  Here  is  a  change 
that  is  at  least  worthy  of  consideration.  How  has  it  hap- 
pened that  religion,  once  central  to  the  life  and  purpose, 
now  holds  a  debatable  position? 

The  widenmg  of  the  field  has  made  religion  less  con- 
sciously focal.  The  early  college  sought  only  to  prepare 
leadership  for  the  field  of  religion ;  the  modem  college  pre- 
pares leaders  for  every  field.  Meanwhile  there  has  been 
an  extension  of  the  fields  of  leadership.  Two  hundred 
years  ago  the  ministry  was  the  one  great  profession, 
easily  above  all  others  in  social  distinction,  commonly 
above  the  others,  as  law  and  medicine,  in  intellectual  prep- 
aration.    Then  the  parson  was  the  person  in  each  com- 


'236  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

munity.  We  have  not  lowered  the  intellectual  demands 
for  the  ministry,  but  we  have  raised  immensely  the  stand- 
ards of  the  other  professions.  This  has  been  in  response 
to  a  recognition  of  their  developing  social  responsibilities. 
To-day  in  each  of  their  fields  these  professions  offer  op- 
portunities for  the  same  kind  of  leadership  that  once 
belonged  exclusively  to  the  minister.  This  enlargement 
the  college  has  recognized  and  has,  therefore,  sought  to 
provide  general  training  for  all  who  might  hold  leader- 
ship in  any  field.  It  has  ceased  to  be  a  school  for  reli- 
gious workers  and  has  become  a  school  for  all  leaders. 

But  this  is  not  all.  Democracy  strikes  out  beyond 
the  concept  of  a  selected  group  of  leaders.  It  is  not  con- 
tent to  think  that  there  should  be  peculiar  opportunities 
reserved  for  a  few.  Whatever  aids  men  in  the  develop- 
ment of  powers  of  leadership  is  the  inalienable  right  of 
every  man.  The  college  has  followed  the  logic  of  de- 
mocracy in  offering  to  every  one  those  opportunities  which 
once  were  reserved  for  a  few.  It  has  led  the  way  in 
democratizing  higher  education.  Now  it  needs  to  take 
the  next  steps,  of  making  its  method  democratic  and  its 
message  such  as  democracy  needs  to-day. 

No  one  can  fail  to  see  that  the  extension  of  the  field 
of  the  college  has  taken  from  it  an  easily  apprehended 
religious  character ;  but  it  is  a  question  whether  it  has 
not,  at  the  same  time,  developed  its  religious  quality. 
No  single  statement  will  cover  all  cases.  There  are  col- 
leges in  which  the  total  emphasis  and  impress  is  decidedly 
religious,  in  the  sense  here  insisted  on,  to  a  degree  that 
we  believe  was  not  surpassed  in  any  of  the  earlier  institu- 
tions. But  there  are  others  in  which,  even  though  they 
bear  ecclesiastical  names,  it  would  be  difl[icult  to  discover 
even  so  much  as  a  reminder  of  religion.  Speaking  gen- 
erally, the  extension  of  the  field  of  the  college  has  not 
operated  to   attenuate  its  religious  influence  but   it  has 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  A  COLLEGE  237 

markedly  reduced  the  place  of  religion  in  the  curriculum 
and  in  college  activities. 

More  elaborate  organization  has  obscured  religiows 
purpose.  The  change  has  been  due  in  part  to  the  transi- 
tion from  personal  leadership  to  academic  organization. 
There  cluster  about  the  earlier  colleges  the  memories  of 
great  personages,  chosen  to  their  positions  because  of 
religious  qualities.  The  modern  college  does  not  depend 
on  the  over-shadowing  personality  of  any  individual,  nor 
does  it  choose  its  head  for  the  earlier  reasons.  Com- 
monly it  counts  on  an  aggregation  of  scholarly  powers,  on 
the  total  impress  of  a  learned  faculty,  on  high  standards 
and  ample  facilities  and  on  the  organizing  power  of  an 
executive.  It  was  the  outstanding,  personal,  religious 
figure  that  drew  men  to  early  Princeton,  Harvard,  and 
Yale  and  to  many  smaller  schools.  Their  presidents  were 
great  men  and  pronounced  religious  leaders.  Since  the 
special  field  of  the  college,  then,  was  religion  the  academic 
leaders  were  those  who  towered  above  their  fellows  in 
religious  knowledge  and  religious  life.  Our  modern  lead- 
ership is  just  as  likely  to  rise  in  any  other  field,  in 
physics  or  economics. 

Changes  in  curriculum  have  affected  the  place  of  re- 
ligion. The  principal  change  has  been  that  which  has 
taken  place  as  the  college  has  moved  from  a  school  of 
preparation  for  the  ministry,  a  simple  theological  sem- 
inary, to  take  its  place  in  general  culture.  Since  reli- 
gious studies  were  included  on  professional  grounds  they 
have  been  dropped  because  their  relation  to  the  life-needs 
of  students  have  no  longer  been  clearly  evident.  Studies 
in  religion  have  only  formed  the  vanguard  of  a  long  pro- 
cession retreating  from  the  campus  under  the  exigencies 
of  the  practical  demands  of  the  age.  Moreover,  religion 
has  often  been  held  back  while  other  studies  have  gone 
forward.     Has  there  been  any  change  in  the  method  and 


238  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

content  of  teaching  in  religion  which  would  in  any  degree 
correspond  to  the  changes  in  the  teaching  of  chemistry, 
for  example,  in  the  last  century?  Or,  to  take  a  closer 
analogy,  consider  the  development  in  the  teaching  of  lit- 
erature. Progress  has  been  made  in  religion ;  in  instances 
one  feels  that  it  compares  favorably  with  any  other  de- 
partment in  college.  At  least  this  is  true  as  to  the  teach- 
ing of  one  aspect  of  the  subject,  its  literature  and  his- 
tory, and  here  the  results  have  been  such  as  to  indicate 
a  solution  of  the  whole  problem. 

Democracy  has  clarified  and  elevated  the  purpose  of 
the  college.  The  tendency  of  a  true  democracy  will  be  to 
regard  all  human  affairs  with  spiritual  vision  and  to  think 
of  all  life  in  religious  terms.  Its  high  purposes  with  per- 
sons in  society  converts  all  social  life  into  a  spiritual 
enterprise.  Therefore  it  regards  all  forms  of  social  lead- 
ership with  the  same  reverence  that  our  fathers  felt  for 
the  ministry  and  the  leadership  of  the  churches.  It  feels 
responsible  for  every  form  of  leadership,  since  in  every 
department  of  life  we  need  both  the  same  expertness  and 
the  same  spirit  that  the  early  colleges  were  designed  to 
give  to  the  ministry.  The  modem  college  discharges  a 
spiritual  responsibility  in  all  fields,  giving  not  only  intel- 
lectual training  but,  what  is  vastly  more  important,  vision 
of  the  meaning  and  motive  of  life  and  leadership  in  a  de- 
mocracy. The  purpose  of  the  college  to-day  is  to  serve 
democracy,  this  kingdom  of  the  spirit,  through  all  its 
leaders  just  as  the  early  college  sought  to  serve  through 
a  few.  So  that,  even  though  religion  may  seem  to  hold 
a  debatable  place  in  the  curriculum,  it  is  possible  to  think 
of  the  college  as  distinctly  a  religious  agency.  In  so  far 
as  it  makes  life  in  a  democracy  mean  fullness  of  living, 
fullness  of  service  and  devotion  to  the  fullness  of  life  for 
all,  it  serves  religion. 

The  spiritual  function  makes  the  college  a  religious  in- 
stitution.    It  is  folly  to  talk  of  training  leaders  unless  we 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  A  COLLEGE         239 

hold  ourselves  responsible  for  leaderships,  for  the  vision, 
motive  and  ideal  that  must  lead  the  leaders.  The  prime 
quality  of  leadership  is  spiritual ;  power  to  lead  is  a  mat- 
ter of  the  spirit.  Faith  is  the  leader's  loyalty  to  an  ideal 
that  compels  him  to  step  forward  in  untrodden  paths,  to 
attempt  the  unprecedented,  to  follow  the  vision  wherever 
it  may  lead.  Faith  is  that  loyalty  to  truth  thai  trans- 
lates its  concepts  into  action  and  makes  them  the  common 
possession  of  the  world.  Religion  is  the  life  based  on  its 
faith;  it  makes  men  live  for  the  abiding  values.  It  re- 
veals the  only  possessions  a  person,  as  a  person,  can 
have  and  the  only  ones  he  can  share  unreservedly  with  all 
others.  It  makes  the  leader's  life  possible;  it  furnishes 
him  his  food  for  desert  days,  his  sources  of  strength  for 
all  tasks.  These  are  the  needs  of  men,  the  demands  of 
their  inner  life,  which  any  institution  of  leadership  must 
enable  them  to  possess. 

The  college  needs  a  new  interpretation  of  its  problem 
of  religion,  a  setting  in  terms  of  a  democracy  of  the  spirit. 
Whenever  the  matter  of  religion  in  the  American  college 
is  discussed  four  focal  points  appear;  they  are:  courses, 
worship,  voluntary  activities  and  local  churches.  These 
seem  to  limit  the  vision  of  religion's  function  in  higher 
educational  institutions.  It  is  assumed  that  the  problem 
is  to  be  solved  by  one  or  the  other  of  these  means.  The 
emphasis  shifts  from  time  to  time;  not  long  ago  it  was 
almost  wholly  on  services  of  worship,  later  it  passed  to 
voluntary  classes  and  activities;  to-day  it  is  on  courses 
of  study.  These  various  devices  indicate  a  failure  to  face 
the  full  problem ;  they  are  attempts  to  meet  special  phases 
as  they  appear. 

If  the  college  could  discharge  its  whole  duty  toward 
learning  by  its  courses  in  a  prescribed  series  of  subjects 
it  might,  conceivably,  discharge  its  religious  duty  by 
courses  in  religious  knowledge.  But  the  college  does  not 
think  that  its  work  is  done  when  a  body  of  knowledge 


840  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

has  been  tested  and  found  not  wholly  wanting  in  the 
student's  mind.  By  directed  activities  it  develops  habits 
and  powers;  by  ideals  expressed  in  buildings,  in  forms  of 
art,  in  the  characters  and  habits  of  persons,  by  its  whole 
life  it  seeks  to  cultivate  habits  of  mind,  to  lead  youth  to 
certain  levels  of  living  and  into  certain  power.  It  recog- 
nizes a  responsibility  toward  life,  toward  persons  and 
toward  society.  Its  courses  are  means  and  not  ends.  So 
should  it  be  in  the  matter  of  religion. 

The  college  discharges  its  spiritual  function  by  furnish- 
ing an  experience  in  religion.  We  are  in  danger  of  re- 
peating with  the  college  student  the  mistake  we  have  made 
in  the  religious  education  of  children  in  the  church  school, 
that  of  assuming  that  the  problem  was  simply  one  of 
providing  the  materials  of  religious  knowledge.  Almost 
exclusively  current  discussions  on  religion  in  the  college 
center  on  courses  in  the  Bible  and  other  religious  subjects. 
At  first  this  was  natural  as  an  attempt  to  restore  these 
subjects  to  the  area  of  the  student's  academic  interests; 
the  prevailing  exclusion  of  religion  was  so  striking  an 
anomaly  as  to  call  for  protest.  But  no  one  seriously 
supposes  that  the  introduction  of  these  subjects  would  of 
itself  secure  the  ends  of  religious  education.  That  cannot 
be,  first,  because  there  is  no  assurance  that  religious  re- 
sults flow  from  the  academic  study  of  religion,  and,  sec- 
ond, college  class-work  does  not  have  any  marked  tend- 
ency to  carry  over  into  action  and  immediate  living;  on 
the  contrary  it  often  tends  to  place  the  subject  in  the 
category  of  so-called  purely  intellectual  interests.  Col- 
lege Bible  study  can  easily  mean  placing  the  Bible  on  a 
mental  academic  shelf.  - — - 

It  is  worth  while  to  have  clearly  in  mind  the  end  that 
is  sought.  We  assume  that  the  college  is  a  religious  in- 
stitution in  that  it  was  organized  by  religious  persons 
and  is  being  conducted  as  a  part  of  a  program  which 
looks  toward  a  religious  social  order.     Its  function  is  to 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  A  COLLEGE  ^41 

give  society  trained  persons,  developed  in  their  general 
powers,  who  will  become  effective  leaders  in  developing  a 
religious  social  order.  The  end,  then,  looks  far  beyond 
any  body  of  knowledge;  it  is  directed  immediately  to  the 
lives  and  conduct  of  persons  and  ultimately  to  society. 
It  implies  habits  of  mind,  habits  of  conduct,  ideals  and 
abihties.  Now  this  must  not  be  conceived  simply  as  a 
matter  of  training  for  an  experience  into  which  the 
student  will  enter  later ;  there  is  no  such  thing  as  a  separa- 
tion between  training  and  the  experience  for  which  it  is 
designed ;  the  experience  is  the  training.  If  these  young 
men  and  women  are  to  make  a  religious  world,  they  must 
live  in  one  now.  Modern  education  assures  us  that  this  is 
the  right  emphasis,  that  all  schooling  is  really  a  partici- 
pation in  life  in  which  the  doctrines  are  discovered  through  < 
doing. 

The  great  need  of  the  college  student  is  the  opportimity 
to  experience  religion  as  the  normal  life  of  his  own  society. 
The  very  fact  of  going  to  college  and  of  doing  its  work, 
living  its  life  may  express  his  ideals  and  his  faith,  may 
be  his  religious  experience.  The  college  may  say  to  him, 
"  To  be  here  and  to  do  well  your  work  is  the  highest  re- 
ligious Hfe  you  can  live  now."  If  he  can  see  that,  it  will 
make  religion  much  more  real  than  it  could  be  as  a  matter 
of  historical  or  philosophical  inquiry.  It  will  make  it  a 
matter  of  the  present,  of  the  daily  life  of  campus,  of  class 
room  and  of  comradeship.  College  living  may  be  an  ex- 
perience in  religion  when  it  is  saturated  with  ideals  of 
worth  and  service. 

Religion  must  he  first  of  all  a  positive  active  experience. 
It  will  rise  in  the  wills  of  men  and  find  ways  out  through 
their  actions  before  it  will  be  a  reality  in  their  thinking. 
It  will  come  out  of  their  own  aspirations  rather  than  from 
overhead  authorities.  It  will  not  come  out  of  abstract 
thinking.  But  finding  itself  in  the  concrete,  in  action, 
it  will  be  saved  from  the  purely  speculative  attitude.     One 


242  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

of  the  dangers  of  student  life  is  a  negative  critical  atti- 
tude toward  all  things;  this  may  be  only  an  assumed 
attitude,  but  it  easily  leads  men  into  thinking  that  criti- 
cizing the  game  from  the  bleachers  is  the  same  as  playing 
the  game  on  the  field.  It  tends  to  satisfy  with  an  analysis 
instead  of  an  experience  and  to  substitute  a  definition  for 
the  deed.  Thinking  about  religion  is  not  necessarily  re- 
ligious; the  academic  habit  develops  the  critic  who  never 
creates.  It  helps  to  account  for  the  failure  of  college 
men  and  women  to  take  an  active  part  in  the  work  of  the 
churches.  The  common  rejoinder  that  the  work  of  the 
church  is  not  worthy  of  their  attention  is  simply  a  fur- 
ther indication  of  this  critical  attitude,  for,  to  trained 
men  and  women,  the  deficiencies  of  an  institution  ought 
to  be  an  invitation  to  the  enlistment  of  their  services. 

If  the  records  of  college  graduates  are  examined  it  is 
usually  found  that  whenever  they  devote  themselves  to 
social  service  it  is  to  those  forms  in  which  they  had  some 
experience  while  in  college.  Whenever  service  stepped  out 
of  books  into  the  student's  activities  it  became  his  per- 
manent possession.  College  politics  have  been  a  school  of 
political  service.  But  the  college  relation  to  philanthropy 
is  almost  entirely  bookish,  with  the  result  that  it  does  not 
carry  over  into  after-life.  So  long  as  college  religion  is 
purely  a  bookish  affair  the  same  will  be  true  here.  The 
intellectual  aspects  will  be  the  only  vital  ones  in  the  col- 
lege period.  On  this  plane  the  actualities  of  everyday 
religious  life  have  no  chance;  the  preaching  in  the  home 
church  cannot  compare  with  college  chapel,  the  teaching 
cannot  hold  a  candle  to  college  class  work,  the  level  of 
intelligence  in  the  prayer  meeting  will  remind  only  by 
extreme  contrast  with  the  groups  in  college.  But  this  is 
not  the  plane  of  reality;  on  the  level  of  life  and  action 
the  village  church  will  be  able  to  take  care  of  itself  and, 
on  this  level,  college  training  will  carry  over  into  after- 
life experience.     The  student  who  has  had  experience  in 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  A  COLLEGE         243 

religion  as  service  in  his  college  days  will  find  ample  scope 
for  exercise  later. 

Of  course  all  this  is  only  another  way  of  saying  that 
in  the  college  religion  is  one  of  the  subjects  for  which  a 
laboratory  is  indispensable,  and  that  the  laboratory  is 
that  of  the  college  life  and  its  avenues  of  service. 

BIBLE    STUDY    IN    COLLEGE 

What  is  the  place  of  Bible  study?  Does  a  program  of 
the  character  suggested  involve  the  abandonment  of  col- 
lege courses  in  the  history  and  literature  of  the  Bible? 
Have  we,  then,  been  developing  so  many  efficient  depart- 
ments of  the  Bible,  and  ojf  Religion,  only  to  find  them 
useless?  Not  at  all;  courses  in  religion  have  their  place, 
an  essential  and  important  one.  But  they  are  only  a  part 
of  a  program  of  religious  training.  They  have  the  same 
relations  here  as  in  other  departments. 
y^  Courses  in  the  Bible  belong  in  the  college,  first,  on  the 
^  same  ground  as  courses  in  any  ancient  literature,  because  "^ 
it  is  part  of  our  spiritual  heritage.     But  the  Hebrew  and 

)  Christian  scriptures  are  part  of  our  heritage  in  a  pecu- 
liarly distinct  and  valuable  degree.  They  have  entered, 
more  than  any  other,  into  our  thinking,  they  determine 
our  ideals,  they  mold  our  current  philosophy  and  they 
are  so  much  a  part  of  our  every-day  speech  that  it  is  im- 
possible to  understand  the  language  of  our  times  without 
some  knowledge  of  the  Bible.  It  has  guided  our  institu- 
tions and  saturated  our  literature.  Every  teacher  of 
English  knows  the  difficulties  that  arise  through  popular 
ignorance  of  this  well  of  English  undefiled.  This  has  been 
so  often  stated  that  we  accept  the  fact  complacently  to- 
day. And  yet  we  can  hardly  claim  that  any  youth  has 
had  a  fair  chance  to  possess  his  world  from  whom  this 
part  of  it  has  been  held  back. 

Second,   biblical    courses    have    their   places    in    social^ 
studies.     The  college  years  are  peculiarly  suitable  for  the 


£44  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

study  of  the  Bible;  the  mind  is  then  ready  to  take  the 
historical  point  of  view.  While  it  would  seem  that  much 
of  the  general  knowledge  of  the  Bible  which  seems  so  la- 
mentably lacking  in  the  college  ought  to  have  been  ac- 
quired in  earlier  years,  the  greater  wealth  of  this  litera- 
ture is  not  within  the  appreciation  of  children.  But  in 
college  it  is  possible  to  trace  the  rise  and  development 
of  moral  ideals  and  social-religious  institutions,  to  trace 
religion  in  its  development  and  to  see  the  inter-action  be- 
tween social  life  and  spiritual  ideals.  These  are  studies 
in  moral  evolution,  in  the  development  of  social  ideals 
which  should  precede  any  study  of  our  own  times. 

Third,  biblical  courses  have  values  of  leadership.  With 
the  historical  background  there  appear  the  great  charac- 
ters, men  who  are  ideals  personified,  who  sweep  on  the 
stage  of  time  majestically,  thrilling  and  persuading  us, 
compelling  our  heroic  worship.  Youth  needs  to  know 
them.  They  are  the  very  soul  of  literature,  for  what  is 
literature  but  a  social  experience  with  the  great  ?  To  live 
an  hour  with  them  may  change  a  life.  Biblical  courses\ 
belong  in  the  college  because  they  may  minister  to  its 
spiritual  purposes. 

The  spiritual  purpose  of  the  college  in  a  democracy  is, 
then,  first  of  all,  one  that  cannot  be  readily  exhibited  in 
catalogues.  It  implies  the  saturation  of  the  college  pro-j 
gram  as  a  whole  with  spiritual  purpose.  It  means  that 
the  college  is  conceived  as  a  religious  institution,  and  that 
all  its  work  looks  forward,  with  religious  purpose,  to  a 
spiritual  world  order,  ' 


CHAPTER  XIX 

TEACHING    RELIGION    IN    THE    COLLEGE 

It  is  not  difficult  to  understand  the  spiritual  mission  of 
a  college  in  a  democracy ;  but  for  the  college  worker,  the 
immediate  problem  is  to  see  how  the  spiritual  power  and 
purpose  of  a  college  may  be  definitely  precipitated  in  a 
college  program.  In  that  problem  are  several  elements 
which  may  be  stated  briefly: 

The  college  is  no  longer  classified  as  a  religious  insti- 
tution. A  religious  purpose  is  no  longer  taken  for 
granted.  The  change  from  professional  training  for  re- 
ligious work  to  one  embracing  all  general  culture  grad- 
ually stripped  from  the  college  its  special  theological 
character.  Being  divorced  from  religion  on  a  vocational 
basis  it  has  not  been  easy  to  maintain  relations  on  a  basis 
of  cultural  interest  and  human  need. 

Civil  relationships  have  limited  religious  freedom.  The 
relations  of  colleges  to  the  states,  as  through  endowments 
and  support,  at  first  had  no  effect  on  religious  teaching. 
But,  as  the  United  States  became  the  home  of  many  faiths 
and  questions  of  conscience  rights  arose,  the  day  passed 
when  the  state  could  support  a  single  faith.  One  of  two 
things  happened  to  the  colleges  in  most  instances ;  either 
they  became  state  institutions,  disavowing  all  sectarian 
connections  and  any  special  religious  purpose,  or  they 
ceased  to  accept  the  support  of  the  state  and  were  free 
to  teach  religion.  In  either  case,  however,  the  status  of 
religion  had  been  affected.  In  the  case  of  the  State  Uni- 
versities great  care  is  always  exercised  to  avoid  even  the 
appearance  of  sectarianism.     In  a  few  instances  this  is 

245 


246  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

"^  carried  to  the  extreme  in  the  refusal  to  recognize  even  the 
fact  of  religion.     In  any  case  their  strictly  non-sectarian 

^  policy  makes  the  recognition  of  religion,  which  usually  ap- 
pears in  the  form  of  some  particular  faith,  quite  difficult, 
and  this  tends  constantly  to  modify  their  academic  prac- 
tice. The  leadership  of  the  state  university  affects  all  the 
colleges  of  a  state  and,  without  knowing  just  why,  they 
are  likely  to  follow  the  path  marked  out  by  this  institu- 
tion, a  path  determined  by  many  considerations  which 
do  not  affect  the  greater  number  of  smaller  or  more  free 
institutions.  The  free  colleges  have  failed  often  to  see 
and  to  use  their  freedom. 

Church  relationships  have  limited  religion.  Many 
church  colleges  have  serious  difficulties  with  ecclesiastical 
control.  If  the  churches  determine  the  content  of  the  re- 
ligious teaching  of  a  college  it  loses  its  spiritual  leader- 
ship. It  becomes  simply  an  echo,  its  notes  determined  b}^ 
voices  speaking  in  the  past.  That  condition  is  much  more 
common  than  we  are  apt  to  confess.  There  are  colleges 
which  never  have  a  free  thought;  every  word  and  act  is 
determined  by  one  of  two  considerations  —  often  by  both, 
by  the  desire  to  stand  well  with  the  churches  and  the  fear 
of  offending  the  patron  who  has  sinned  against  human 
rights.  In  such  institutions  the  fear  of  the  brethren 
exercises  the  spell  of  a  general  inhibition  in  the  class 
rooms,  especially  those  in  biology,  philosophy  and  eco- 
nomics. Here  two  grim  shadows  haunt  the  executive,  the 
loss  of  financial  support  and  a  heresy  trial.  This  is  not 
a  general  picture;  but  it  is  so  sad  and  striking  in  the 
instances  where  it  is  true  that  one  cannot  escape  from 
its  horror.  Religion  cannot  breathe  in  an  atmosphere 
such  as  that ;  that  college  is  not  a  prophetic  voice ;  it  is  a 
hireling,  peddling  the  petty  wares  made  in  darkness. 

Last,  the  introduction  of  pre-vocational  studies  has 
complicated  the  situation.  The  question  arises.  Shall  re- 
ligious studies  be  confined  to  the  pre-vocational  purpose. 


TEACHING  RELIGION  IN  THE  COLLEGE     U1 

designed  for  those  looking  forward  to  a  religious  profes- 
sion? And,  in  any  case,  how  difficult  it  is  to  plac&  reli- 
gious studies  in  any  other  category  seeing  that  religious 
knowledge  has  been  systematized  on  a  vocational  basis,  by 
colleges  preparing  for  the  ministry  and  by  theological 
teachers. 

What  is  the  way  back?  The  college  is  a  religious  in- 
stitution; religion  has  a  place  in  the  life-training  of  all 
men  and  women;  the  world  properly  looks  for  religious 
persons  as  a  result  of  higher  education,  and  the  college 
has  neither  time  nor  a  program  for  religion.  The  first 
step  will  be  to  distinguish  between  two  sets  of  problems, 
first,  to  determine  the  function  of  religion,  in  its  various 
aspects,  in  the  process  of  the  college,  and,  second,  to  se- 
lect the  necessary  elements  and  means,  rejecting,  electing 
and  coordinating  the  traditional  religious  parts  of  the 
college  curriculum.  Many  are  still  attempting  to  fit  the 
theological  curriculum  inherited  from  an  institution  de- 
signed to  train  ministers  into  an  organization  which  has 
outgrown  that  purpose  and  passed  it  on  to  a  specialized 
institution.  Of  course  it  is  true  that  to  a  large  extent 
the  program  of  the  college  is  determined  by  custom  rather 
than  by  function;  much  remains  by  the  sanction  of  the 
yesterdays  alone.  In  the  field  of  religion,  where  the  hand 
of  the  past  has  been  absolute,  is  the  finest  place  to  estab- 
lish the  practice  of  a  thorough  examination  of  purpose 
as  predicatory  to  any  program.  Such  an  examination 
involves  a  study  of  the  precise  social  function  of  a  college ; 
that  is  too  large  a  task  to  attempt  here,  but  it  seems  worth 
while  to  consider  briefly  the  part  of  religion  in  that  social 
function. 

COLLEGE    PEOGRAM    OF    RELIGIOUS    EDUCATION 

The  program  of  religious  education  in  the  college  will 
have  three  principal  elements :  the  discovery  of  a  reli- 
gious interpretation  of  life,  training  in  the  habits  of  the 


248  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

religious  life,  and  the  development  of  efficiencies  in  reli- 
gious social  realization  and  self-expression. 

First,  the  discovery  of  a  religious  interpretation  of  life. 
It  is  an  axiom  of  everyday  thinking  that  the  college  fails, 
no  matter  what  else  it  may  accomplish,  if  it  has  not  en- 
abled the  student  to  get  a  grasp  on  life's  meaning.  Of 
course  this  is  not  done  either  by  chapel  talks  or  by  any 
sort  of  dissertations  on  the  subject.  It  is  accomplished 
commonly  indirectly,  by  establishing  habits  of  thought, 
by  developing  interest  in  the  great  subjects  of  human 
philosophy,  by  stimulating  thoughtful  minds  one  with  an- 
other, and  by  the  vision  caught  through  ideal  persons, 
purposes  and  concepts  either  met  at  first  hand  or  discov- 
ered in  history,  literature,  science  and,  most  of  all,  in  ex- 
perience. 

Such  a  conscious  purpose  makes  the  academic  respon- 
sibility primarily  a  spiritual  one.  The  most  helpful  for- 
ward step  in  religious  education  in  the  colleges  would  be 
the  awakening  of  the  staff  to  consciousness  of  responsi- 
bility for  ideals.  That  would  mean  setting  first  things 
first.  It  would  not  mean  the  abandonment  of  any  aca- 
demic standards,  the  lowering  of  any  professional  ideals 
nor  the  attempt  to  make  a  college  a  compromise  between  a 
university  and  a  prayer  meeting.  Rather  a  sense  of  re- 
sponsibility for  the  ideals  of  students  will  make  the  most 
exacting  demands  on  professional  duty  and  professional 
skill.  But  the  college  professor  must  see  that  even  his 
all-absorbing  and  all-important  specialty  is  but  a  means 
to  an  end,  and  that  end  is  personal,  social  and  spiritual. 
He  is  a  teacher  not  of  subjects  but  of  persons.  His  suc- 
cess will  be  measured  not  by  monographs  but  by  men. 

Whenever  this  responsibility  is  active  in  the  staff  it  will 
be  keenly  felt  in  the  student  body;  its  existence  will  be 
more  effective  than  any  homilies  on  the  subject  could  be. 
Like  all  great  ideals  it  will  be  caught  and  each  genera- 
tion of  students  will  hand  it  down  to  another.     Do  we  not 


TEACHING  RELIGION  IN  THE  COLLEGE      ^49 

know  colleges  where  this  is  true,  where,  high  though  the 
standards  of  scholarship  are,  the  greatest  heritage  of  all 
has  been  that  of  high  and  splendid  lives  who  have  accus- 
tomed men  to  thinking  worthily  of  life? 

Students  are  aided  to  their  interpretation  of  life  in 
many  specific  ways;  perhaps  at  no  point  does  a  more 
specific  evaluation  appear  than  in  the  choice  of  vocation. 
This  commonly  takes  place,  for  those  who  have  higher  edu- 
cation, during  the  college  years.  It  is  influenced  tre- 
mendously by  the  traditions  of  the  institution  but  even 
more  by  the  opinions  of  instructors  or  professors.  Not 
only  are  opportunities  sedulously  cultivated  by  older 
students  to  secure  the  professor's  opinions  on  the  profes- 
sions but  they  watch  and  repeat  his  less  formal  judgments. 
Their  choices  are  fundamentally  based  on  theories,  thus 
acquired,  of  what  is  most  worth  while.  They  choose  the 
law,  for  example,  because  it  offers  one  an  opportunity 
to  lead  and  serve  his  fellows,  because  it  promises  fair 
financial  returns  with  large  opportunities  for  a  few  — 
of  whom  the  student  is  one, —  or  because  it  offers  a  digni- 
fied profession  with  some  scholarly  aspects.  The  reason 
for  choice  is  really  an  evaluation  of  life.  The  basis  of 
choice  is  gradually  developing  through  the  years  before 
it  is 'determined.  It  is  a  way  of  thinking  determined  by 
the  example  of  parents,  the  tone  of  public  opinion  and, 
markedly,  by  the  attitude  and  judgments  of  teachers.  So 
that  vocational  direction  has  a  marked  influence  in  form- 
ing the  student's  ideals  and  his  theory  of  the  meaning  of 
life. 

Every  study  is  likely  to  have  open  avenues  to  lifers 
Tueaning,  The  study  of  the  Bible  is  an  excellent  example, 
but  what  is  true  here  is  just  as  likely  to  be  true  elsewhere 
when  the  life  purpose  is  held  in  mind.  Where  the  study 
of  the  Bible  is  more  than  mere  pedantry  it  determines 
one's  ideals  by  revealing  great  spirits.  It  does  more  than 
instruct  in  the  geography,  history  and  archaeology  of  a 


250  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

remote  people;  it  develops  these  fields  only  to  form  the 
life-setting  of  great  souls,  of  those  who  found  life  as  a 
way  to  God.  No  one  can  really  study  the  Bible  without 
feeling  the  reality  of  those  impressive  personalities,  and 
no  one  can  know  them  without  learning  something  of  their 
secret  of  life.  But  there  have  been  great  souls  in  every 
field  of  human  knowledge.  History  is  dead  information 
without  its  spiritual  heroes  and  its  compelling  motives, 
science  is  dead  without  some  vision  of  the  vigor  and  faith 
of  Kepler,  Cuvier  and  Huxley,  literature  without  Dante, 
Milton  and  Homer,  politics  without  Plato,  Mazzini  and 
Burke.  It  is  not  learning  only  to  know  what  they  did 
but  to  know  them,  and  this  is  to  know  what  life  is. 

INTERPEETING    EXPERIENCE    IN    SPIRITUAL    TERMS 

The  college  aids  students  to  know  the  meaning  of  life 
by  directing  their  experience.  This  is  the  application  in 
the  college  of  the  method  now  accepted  as  a  fundamental 
principle  in  religious  training.  But  the  difficulty  is  to 
see  just  how  experience  may  be  organized  and  directed. 
Yet  the  situation  is  very  simple  if  we  put  it  into  other 
terms  and  ask.  Is  it  possible  to  take  the  life  of  the  college 
as  a  religious  life,  to  lead  young  people  into  its  full 
meaning,  so  that  they  will  freely  and  happily  live  this  life, 
and  then  to  make  them  see  that  in  so  living  they  have  had 
a  religious  experiences^  Our  task  is  not  so  much  to  give 
them  something  new  as  to  aid  them  to  a  right  interpreta- 
tion of  the  life  that  is  already  theirs.  They  must  come 
to  know  the  spiritual  possibilities  of  the  present.  They 
come  to  college  thinking  of  religion  as  something  sep- 
arated from  everyday  life.  To  them  the  religious  people 
were  a  separate  group.  They  need  aid  in  realizing  their 
place  in  a  religious  order,  in  apprehending  the  normality 
of  the  religious  and  in  recognizing  the  religious  quality 
in  acts  and  ideals.     How  is  this  knowledge  to  come  to 


TEACHING  RELIGION  IN  THE  COLLEGE      251 

them?  College  preachers  can  help  by  revealing  the  spir- 
itual nature  of  the  student's  everyday  experiences ;  teach- 
ers can  help  by  taking  religion  as  a  matter  belonging 
as  normally  in  life  as  any  other  interest,  but,  most  of  all, 
this  knowledge  will  filter  down  through  personal  contacts, 
through  leaders  in  the  student's  group.  Close  friends 
can  take  us  by  the  shoulder  and  say,  "  Wake  up  I  religion 
is  not  something  apart  from  you ;  it  is  this  life  you  are 
now  living.  God  is  not  in  the  world  outside  alone ;  He  is 
in  this  commonplace  round  of  tasks  and  joys." 

As  a  sociar  experience  college  life  may  reveal  life's  spir- 
itual meanings.  Friendship  is  the  great  revelation  of 
life's  abiding  values,  and  its  extension  through  the  wide 
fellowship  of  a  common  society  may  be  simply  a  mar- 
velous revelation  of  the  possibilities  of  joy  in  life.  It  is 
not  strange  that  graduates  look  back  and  say  that  the 
best  of  college  life  was  the  fellowship ;  they  are  right,  for 
this  revealed  human  values,  it  opened  practically  the  world 
of  personality  and  it  was,  commonly,  an  experience  in  an 
ideal  community,  one  which  realized  a  democracy  of  the 
spirit,  bound  in  free  affection.  Often  college  authorities 
affect  to  ignore  the  social  life  of  the  campus,  to  ridicule 
student  friendships.  But  the  educators  watch  these  lives 
discovering  life,  learning  that  a  man's  value  lies  in  what 
he  is,  getting  down  to  the  basic  terms  of  a  true  democracy. 

The  second  general  factor  in  college  religious  training 
is  the  estahlishment  of  the  habits  of  religious  living. 
Habit-formation  through  the  direction  and  organization 
of  experience  is  one  of  the  normal  processes  of  religious 
education.  Surely  amongst  the  desirable  habits  we  will 
place  prominently  those  of  affectionate  regard  for  the 
good  of  all  men,  full  hearted  devotion  in  service  to  the 
good  of  all,  the  control  of  the  powers  of  one's  own  life, 
steady  and  insistent  search  for  truth  and  reality,  sympa- 
thetic adaptation  to  the  needs  and  even  the  weaknesses  of 


«6«  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

men,  the  cooperative  mind  that  can  work  with  others  for 
ideal  ends  and  loyalty  to  our  own  highest  standards. 
These  are  characteristics  of  democratic  living. 

Such  habits  are  formed  by  living  in  these  ways  and 
doing  these  things.  But  how  is  it  possible,  in  the  highly 
mechanized  life  of  the  college,  to  provide  for  so  many  and 
varied  experiences?  It  is  not  possible  if  each  experience 
is  taken  by  itself.  But  they  do  not  need  to  be  so  taken; 
they  do  not  rise  under  any  special  program  for  they  are 
but  parts  of  wider  experience.  They  must  be  acquired 
as  habits,  as  parts  of  a  variety  of  activities.  Children  do 
not  acquire  the  habit  of  truth-telling  by  exercises  in  con- 
sciously telling  the  truth ;  it  is  learned  through  the  prac- 
tice that  comes  in  play,  in  social  relations  and  in  all  du- 
ties. Courtesy  is  not  an  exercise  which  can  be  called  for 
ten  A.  M.  on  the  college  program  —  often  it  seems  to  be 
postponed  until  graduation  —  but  actually  it  is  a  habit 
formed  by  social  thoughtfulness  at  all  times.  Social  serv- 
ice is  not  that  which  is  reserved  for  the  Social  Service 
Club  and  set  on  the  program  to  begin  after  dinner  on 
Friday  night ;  it  is  that  attitude  of  mind  and  consequent 
activity  which  finds  expression  on  the  campus  and  in  class 
rooms  as  well  as  in  the  city  slums.  Thus  all  college  life 
is  a  school  of  habits. 

The  college  is  responsible  for  "  college  life.'*  The  de- 
velopment of  such  habits  as  have  been  mentioned  cannot 
be  left  entirely  to  student  initiative  any  more  than  the 
habits  desired  in  the  elementary  school  are  expected  to 
rise  in  the  child's  will  alone.  There  is  desire  there,  and 
the  power  is  there,  but  it  needs  stimulation  and  direction. 
"  College  life,"  we  often  say,  "  is  the  largest  part  of  edu- 
cation." Why  then  is  this  largest  part  left  without  di- 
rection? In  what  sense  are  college  leaders  educators  if 
they  have  no  care  for  that  which  plays  the  largest  part  in 
education?  When,  in  the  face  of  high  standards  of  schol- 
arship, slovenly  habits  of  living  are  permitted,  when  men 


TEACHING  RELIGION  IN  THE  COLLEGE      253 

crowding  through  class-rooms  and  halls  become  discour- 
teous to  women,  when  dormitory  life  becomes  slip-shod 
and  dirty,  what  are  the  ultimate  educational  effects? 

It  is  said  that  it  is  beneath  the  dignity  of  college  pro- 
fessors to  give  these  young  people  lessons  in  personal 
cleanliness,  courtesy,  truth-telling  and  truth-living.  This 
is  the  rankest  kind  of  childish  pedantry.  It  could  be 
maintained  only  by  the  dignity  of  purposeless  pride  of 
erudition.  It  might  be  true  if  the  college  had  no  respon- 
sibility for  the  future  which  is  to  be  determined  by  the  life 
habits  of  graduates.  But,  as  it  is,  instead  of  training  in 
living,  we  exhaust  our  interest  in  conduct  by  leading  the 
class  in  ethics  through  dry  analyses  of  the  bases  of  group 
behavior.  If  nowhere  else,  here  is  an  opportunity,  in- 
stead of  developing  an  analytic  interest  in  human  behavior 
as  a  remote  affair,  to  fix  attention  on  the  problems  nearest 
at  hand.  Why  not  treat  the  college  life  as  a  real  life 
involving  real  ethical  situations.  It  is  very  real  to  the 
student,  as  real  as  any  world  ever  will  be ;  it  is  his  imme- 
diate opportunity  of  learning  the  art  of  living.^  If  the 
college  is  to  train  for  a  democratic  society  it  must  be 
done  by  actual  training  in  the  arts  of  social  life  as  they 
must  be  practiced  in  the  college. 

TRAINING    FOR    SERVICE 

The  third  general  element  is  the  development  of  efficien' 
cies  in  religious  self-expression  and  social  service.  Can 
the  college  impart  such  instruction  and  develop  such  forms 
of  experience  as  shall  send  young  men  and  women  out  to 
live  the  life  of  a  democratic  society,  one  that  calls  for  de- 
voted and  efficient  cooperation  in  the  common  good  ?  Can 
it  add  to  the  vision  of  a  world  organized  for  spiritual 
ends  the  abilities  to  realize  that  world?     This  is  true  vo- 

lAs  an  example  of  this  method  see  the  excellent  text  book  by- 
Professor  Bernard  C.  Ewer  on  "College  Study  and  College  Life" 
(Badger,  1917).  i 


254  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

cational  training,  for  men  are  called  to  that  which  is 
greater  than  their  professional  callings,  to  serve  and  en- 
rich their  world.  The  sweeping  vision  must,  however, 
come  down  to  practical  details.  This  is  the  difficult  mat- 
ter ;  youth  glows  with  the  vision  but  it  easily  chills  before 
the  small  tasks  that  alone  can  make  the  vision  real.  Their 
ardor  will  certainly  die  if  our  preparation  is  purely  theo- 
retical. Here  practice  must  go  on  step  by  step;  they 
must  be  guided  into  service  and  their  ideals  must  find 
immediate  application  and  expression  in  practice. 

The  college  can  train  in  practical  religious  usefulness. 
Looking  forward  to  their  lives  the  college  must  see  them 
living  in  communities  where  religious  enterprises  are  in 
operation  and  where  they  wait  for  efficient  workers. 
Much  of  this  will  be  work  in  churches ;  this  is  not  to  as- 
sume that  church-work  is  the  only  or  the  most  important 
form  of  religious  service.  But  it  is  certainly  a  very  nat- 
ural one  with  which  to  begin  and  it  is  one  which  is  already 
fairly  well  organized.  It  has  a  broader  claim  than  we 
sometimes  think.  If  the  total  society  is  to  be  governed 
by  spiritual  ideals  we  must  preserve  this  smaller  society 
which  is  specifically  organized  as  a  spiritual  group.  If 
the  community  of  to-morow  is  to  be  one  in  which  children 
will  have  their  full  rights  and  men  may  find  their  measure 
of  happiness  we  must  aid  those  societies  which  are  organ- 
ized for  ideal  ends  to  function  effectively  in  society  to- 
day. The  church  needs  those  who  know  how  to  make  her 
social  force  count  for  social  development  and  rightness. 
The  college  is  the  one  institution  which  can  train  for  com- 
munities workers  capable  for  this  task. 

Such  a  purpose  will  lead  to  courses  of  instruction  and 
to  the  direction  of  experience  in  the  actual  work  which 
churches  have  to  do.  These  courses  would  not  look  to 
serving  an  institution ;  they  simply  accept  the  fact  of 
social  groups  in  communities  organized  for  religious 
ends   and  they   seek   to   train  young  people   to   efficient 


TEACHING  RELIGION  IN  THE  COLLEGE      255 

service  through  these  groups.  The  courses  look  for- 
ward to  lay  service;  they  have  no  professional  intent. 
Up  to  the  present  the  application  of  this  principle  has 
been  largely  in  the  field  of  the  educational  work  of 
churches.  It  has  developed  from  the  definite  plans  pro- 
posed by  the  Religious  Education  Association.^  It  is 
found  in  chairs  of  Religious  Education,  with  courses  on 
Church-school  history,  organization,  worship,  child-psy- 
chology, methods  of  teaching,  materials,  community  work 
and  in  the  adaptation  of  biblical  courses  to  this  field.  An 
excellent  beginning  has  been  made  which  needs  no  justifi- 
cation so  far  as  its  practical  value  is  concerned. 

Sometimes  objection  is  made  to  practical  training  on 
the  ground  that  such  courses  lower  college  standards,  be- 
ing foreign  to  cultural  purposes.  Strange  to  say  the  col- 
leges that  insist  most  on  these  cultural  standards  have  not 
hesitated  to  devote  themselves  extensively  to  pre-vocational 
work  in  the  field  of  general  education;  their  catalogues 
show  their  intent  to  prepare  young  people  for  public- 
school  service.^  No  one  objects  to  this,  but  all  the  argu- 
ments that  hold  for  general  education  as  a  subject  in  the 
college  curriculum  hold  for  religious  education.  And  so 
far  as  "  culture  "  is  concerned,  what  is  culture  but  the 
growth  of  life,  and  life  grows  not  for  itself  but  for  and 
through  service.  Culture  for  culture's  sake  is  worse  than 
art  for  art's  sake.  It  is  an  end  that  turns  inward  and 
defeats  itself.  Culture  must  have  purpose.  The  higher 
the  purpose  the  greater  the  reach  of  the  life  upward. 
Training  in  the  realization  of  spiritual  ideals  through  so- 
ciety gives  the  ideal  vigor  and  reality ;  it  secures  its  steady 
development.  To  deny  the  student  training  in  the  ex- 
pression of  spiritual  ideals  through  social  activity  is  to 

iSee  the  Memorial  addressed  to  the  heads  of  departments  of 
education  in  colleges  and  universities  throughout  the  United  States 
by  the  Council  of  the  Religious  Education  Association  in  1913. 

2  See  the  survey  by  W.  S.  Atheam  in  Religious  Education  for 
Feb.,  1916,  Vol.  XI,  No.  1. 


256  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

refuse  him  an  essential  part  of  his  means  of  growth,  to 
shorten  the  radius  of  his  graduate  experience  and,  in  prac- 
tice, to  deny  that  religion  is  a  real  part  of  life. 

.More  important  then  than  all  courses  dealing  with  the 
theories  of  religion,  as  a  means  of  developing  men  and 
women  of  religious  spirit,  the  college  will  recognize  the 
necessity  of  simply  accepting  religion  as  a  part  of  life, 
as  a  real  experience  in  college  life  and  a  reality  in  the  life 
which  the  graduate  will  live.  Then  religion  can  be  made 
integral  in  the  student's  life,  in  his  school  experience,  in 
his  course  of  training,  in  his  social  living  and  service  so 
that  as  all  life  grows  his  total  life  grows  as  a  religious 
life. 


CHAPTER  XX 

THE    REALIZATION    OF    DEMOCRACY 

Men  stand  to-day  on  tip-toe.  It  is  an  hour  of  tre-v 
mendous  possibilities.  The  whole  world  is  awake  with  exv 
pectation.  All  who  look  forward  speak  of  a  new  world. 
And  there  are  more  looking  forward  than  ever  before. 
We  know  that  every  day  in  the  past  has  held  the  con- 
sciousness of  the  possibility  of  change,  but  we  have  more ; 
we  witness  vast  social  changes ;  we  see  peoples  in  the  mak- 
ing. The  terrible  struggle  for  the  rights  of  humanity 
against  the  powers  of  the  flesh  and  the  desires  of  the  devil 
has  given  us  a  new  sense  of  the  worth  of  those  ends  for 
which  democracy  exists.  The  high  price  that  all  have 
paid  and  are  paying  for  freedom  not  only  makes  freedom 
itself  more  valuable,  it  gives  it  new  and  more  spiritual 
meanings.  We  cannot  but  believe  that  this  is  the  crisis 
of  an  age-long  process  in  which  the  world  has  been  finding 
itself,  that  we  shall  see  the  da^  whenumeiLjrill  live  for 
those  values  which  a.fe^^^jialy-~£ka.t  when  we  speak  of 
and  work  for  free^Sin  we  are  thinking  of  only  one  part 
of  a  greater  process,  one  which  appears  with  growing 
clearness,  the  emergence  of  the  spiritual  aims  of  existence. 

But  the  far-seeing  warn  us  that  our  high  hopes  will 
not  be  realized  without  further  struggle;  they  warn  us 
of  the  danger  of  reaction.  We  have  been  forced  to  at- 
tempt our  spiritual  ends  with  material  means.  Our  em- 
phasis on  the  power  of  things  may  easily  give  the  phys- 
ical and  material  the  ascendancy.  Unless  we  are  pre- 
pared to  defend  and  nurture  the  spiritual  fruits  of  the 
struggle  they  will  be  snatched  from  before  our  eyes.  De- 
mocracy will  not  be  realized  until  we  are  ready  for  it. 

267 


^58  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

The  problem  is  not  alone  one  of  making  the  world  safe 
for  democracy,  now  it  is  rather  one  of  making  ourselves 
ready  for  democracy. 

:  The  spiritual  conflict  knows  no  end,  for  the  minds  and 
wills  of  men  are  ever  battling  between  desire  and  duty, 
between  the  immediate  satisfactions  and  the  far-off^  ideals. 
This  is  the  conflict  in  which  all  issues  are  really  settled. 
We  have  thought  much  on  plans  which  would  insure  the 
conditions  of  human  freedom ;  are  we  thinking  sufficiently 
on  plans  which  would  insure  the  will  to  use  that  wisdom 
wisely?  We  made  tardy  preparation  for  our  share  in 
making  the  world  safe  for  democracy ;  are  we  now  making 
timely  preparation  of  the  minds  of  men  to  realize  democ- 
racy? The  ultimate  issues  are  in  the  souls  of  men.  Not 
on  battlefields  but  in  our  wills  the  future  is  being  formed. 
The  real  victories  are  being  won  to-day  in  homes  and 
churches  and  schools.  Democracy  will  be  but  an  empty 
word  unless  we  ourselves  are  democrats,  unless  our  eyes 
are  open  to  see  what  it  means  and  our  hearts  are  ready 
to  walk  in  its  ways.  The  immediate  duty  is  that  of  edu- 
cating a  generation  who  know  and  love  and  will  the  ways 
of  democracy.  A  sense  of  these  needs  has  been  coming 
over  the  American  people.  In  the  fall  of  1918  the 
President  of  the  United  States  sent  a  letter  to  the  Depart- 
ment of  the  Interior  urging  the  necessity  of  maintaining 
at  their  highest  efficiency  the  schools  and  colleges;  the 
Commissioner  of  Education  sent  a  circular  to  every  min- 
ister of  religion  in  the  country  calling  attention  to  the 
need  "  to  fit  ourselves  and  our  children  for  life  and  citizen- 
f^hip  in  the  new  era  which  the  war  is  bringing  in."  The 
colleges  of  the  country  organized  themselves  for  a  plan 
by  which  the  immediate  needs  of  the  nation  might  be  met 
and  at  the  same  time  a  larger  number  of  young  people 
might  have  higher  educational  training.  Believing  that 
a  new  and  larger  democracy  is  possible  we  must  turn  our- 
selves to  preparation  of  mind  and  heart  therefor. 


THE  REALIZATION  OF  DEMOCRACY      259 


BASES    OF    PREPARATION 

Preparation  depends  on  the  development  of  vision 
through  education.  First,  a  vision  of  democracy.  Do 
we  know  what  it  means  .^^  The  word  is  current  on  all 
tongues.  To  many  it  seems  to  be  some  concrete  blessing 
to  be  dropped  from  the  skies.  To  more  persons  it  is 
simply  a  form  of  political  organization,  the  one  we  use  — 
and  therefore  the  best.  And  yet  the  world  knows  it 
would  not  pay  the  tragic  price  it  has  paid  for  any  par- 
ticular form  of  civil  government,  and  it  sees  many  forms 
of  government  uniting  for  this  common  ideal.  It  is  pos- 
sible to  make  the  vision  clear.  Children  in  the  schools, 
youth  in  their  varied  ways,  men  and  women  through  the 
churches  and  the  press  must  have  the  full  spiritual  and 
social  meanings  of  democracy  explained  to  them. 
"  Where  there  is  no  vision  the  people  perish."  The  vision 
of  many  comes  through  the  teaching  of  a  few.  It  depends 
on  clear  and  explicit  statements.  It  is  the  duty  of  the 
responsible  agencies,  the  school  and  the  church  particu- 
larly, to  teach  the  people.  Education  for  democracy 
must  mean,  first  of  all,  instruction  in  the  meaning  of 
democracy. 

A  vision  of  democracy  will  depend,  however,  on  that 
which  goes  deeper  than  instruction.  It  arises  in  our  own 
souls  slowly  through  experience.  All  training  in  life  as 
an  experience  of  devotion  to  the  good  of  all,  and  every 
experience  of  sacrifice  for  common  spiritual  purposes 
becomes  a  revelation  of  the  worth  and  glory  of  democracy. 
We  believe  in  that  to  which  we  learn  to  give  our  lives. 
Just  as  we  purposively  instruct  in  the  meaning  of  democ- 
racy, so  We  must  definitely  organize  its  experiences.  The 
spiritual  significance  and  character  of  democracy  appears 
when  it  becomes  a  personal  experience.  Through  the 
organization  of  the  life  of  the  family,  the  school,  the 
church  and  the  city  so  as  to  effect  full  social  cooperation 


mo  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

we  can  lead  young  lives  into  the  knowledge  of  democracy. 
A  democratic  society  teaches  democracy. 

Through  such  teaching  and  experience  we  discover 
democracy  as  a  social  order  and  a  spirit  of  life. 

Second,  a  vision  of  the  meaning  of  education.  This 
will  follow  from  an  understanding  of  democracy.  We 
shall  see  the  school  as  the  child's  experience  in  democracy 
on  one  side  and  as  the  people's  work  in  democracy  on  the 
other.  But,  also,  in  answer  to  the  tremendous  spiritual 
demands  of  democracy,  we  shall  see  that  education  is 
principally  a  process  of  the  development  of  the  spiritual 
life.  A  people  prepared  for  democracy  will  be  a  people 
who  have  rejected  life's  lower  aims  and  have  found  spir- 
itual unity  in  common  seeking  for  its  higher  values. 

Education  will  become  the  experience  through  which 
men  learn  what  are  the  ends  worth  while  in  life  and  how  to 
attain  them.  It  will  disclose  life's  values  and  train  in 
life's  social  methods.  The  machinery  of  instruction  will 
take  its  proper  and  subsidiary  place;  children  will  go  to 
school  that  they  may  learn  to  live.  Life  will  make 
learning  its  servant  in  the  curriculum.  Schooling  will 
mean  the  socializing  of  persons.  Education  will  become 
the  right  of  all  and  the  concern  of  all  because  it  will  be 
the  method  by  which  society  instructs  its  growing  mem- 
bers in  the  meaning  of  life,  trains  them  in  the  habits  of 
the  common  life,  and  develops  the  motives  and  vision  which 
sustain  through  that  life. 

Then  education  for  democracy  will  become,  not  a  special 
course  or  a  single  subject,  but  the  interpretation  of  all 
life  in  educational  terms  and  the  direction  of  life's  educa- 
tional processes  in  the  light  of  man's  spiritual  needs  and 
his  social  aspirations.  All  the  organization  of  life  will 
be  controlled  by  an  educational  consciousness,  a  recogni- 
tion of  what  is  taking  place  in  the  changing  characters 
of  persons  at  all  times.  Home,  school,  church  and  com- 
munity will  be  recognized  as   educational  factors;  they 


THE  REALIZATION  OF  DEMOCRACY      261 

will  be  organized  to  educate.  The  new  education  will  be 
the  direction  of  the  orderly  development  of  the  whole  of 
lives  in  their  social  setting  and  for  their  social  functions. 

Third,  a  new  vision  of  religion.  If  democracy  is  a 
society  of  the  spirit  it  depends,  most  of  all,  for  its  perma- 
nence and  growth,  on  the  development  of  the  life  of  the 
spirit.  As  the  spiritual  conception  of  democracy  devel- 
ops the  life  and  service  of  democracy  will  become  the  prac- 
tical and  social  expression  of  religion,  and  its  sentiments 
and  hopes  will  become  the  aspiration  and  shining  goal 
of  spiritual  faith.  Either  our  old  religious  ideals  and  t 
our  old  religious  forms  will  carry  their  force  over  into  Y 
this  new  life  or  men  will  find  new  forms.  A  spiritual  y 
passion  is  sweeping  over  men  to-day.  '  It  is  the  passion 
for  a  social  order  in  which  the  soul  has  freedom  and 
dominion.  Somehow  religion  —  that  which  lies  in  our 
concepts  as  churches  and  creeds  —  appears  unrelated  to 
the  vision  of  the  age.  Religion  must  become  spiritual. 
It  must  again  reveal  man  as  a  spiritual  being.  It  must 
again  associate  men  for  the  rights  of  the  spirit.  It 
must  again  call  man  to  himself,  to  this  life  of  a  spiritual 
universe  of  which  he  is  part,  and  aid  him  in  bringing  into 
subjection  to  its  purposes  and  its  fullness  all  other  powers 
and  activities. 

Democracy  really  waits  for  the  realization  of  Christi- 
anity. When  the  churches  teach  and  practice  Christianity 
they  will  reveal  a  social  order  existing  for  spiritual  pur- 
poses;  they  will  demonstrate  the  life  of  social  groups 
wholly  devoted  to  the  coming  of  the  kingdom  of  God,  the 
reign  of  love,  goodness  and  truth.  They  will  believe  in 
the  possibility  of  their  prayers  being  answered,  that  men 
may  in  a  common  life  of  love  do  the  will  of  God  together. 
But  spiritual  ends  seem  to  be  very  vague  to  almost  all 
persons,  and  it  is  the  function  of  religion  to  make  them 
clear.  This  is  possible,  not  by  explanation,  but  by 
experience.     Our  new  vision  will  reveal  religion,  not  as 


262  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

something  that  we  teach  and  discuss,  but  as  a  way  of 
life  which  discloses  life's  quality  and  meaning.  It  is  a 
social  way  of  life,  a  way  of  living  together  the  experience 
of  which  leads  men  to  realize  the  true  worths  and  purposes 
of  living.^  Religion,  like  education,  has  hidden  its  pur- 
pose under  its  mechanisms.  Its  means  have  become  too 
largely  its  ends.  It  is  not  in  churches  nor  in  creeds;  it 
is  in  life.  It  is  life  as  lived  for  spiritual  ends.  It  is 
that  range  of  values  in  life  which  makes  us  men  and  women 
and,  most  important  of  all,  makes  us  social  beings.  It 
is  the  common  life  we  can  and  must  share  together.  It 
must  appear  as  the  basis  of  democracy,  its  underlying 
philosophy,  its  sustaining  motive  and  its  ever  enlarging 
ideal. 

Then  we  shall  have  religion  everywhere.  It  will  not  be 
a  matter  of  places  or  days.  It  will  so  saturate  all  life 
that  apart  from  it  no  part  of  true  living  in  a  democracy 
will  be  possible.  It  will  be  so  common  it  cannot  b6 
sectarian.  It  will  be  in  all  our  toihng  together,  all  our 
social  organizing,  all  our  pleasures,  all  our  schooling,  all 
our  common  experiences,  the  life  of  democracy. 

Preparation  demands  organization.  Society  is  not 
yet  organized  for  social  ends.  Democracy  can  never  be 
realized  under  social  mechanisms  designed  for  individual- 
ism. But  the  reorganization  necessary  cannot  be  imposed 
on  our  life  as  a  ready-made  scheme.  It  will  be  effected  as 
in  every  form  we  seek  to  direct  our  plans  to  the  purposes 
of  democracy,  as  each  group  is  organized  for  the  experi- 
ence of  social  living  and  for  the  purpose  of  training  for 
the  life  of  a  spiritual  society.  The  changes  may  come 
slowly  but  come  they  must  until  men  who  toil  know  that 
they  are  not  working  by  the  sufferance  of  an  over-lord 

1  For  an  adequate  treatment  of  this  too-briefly  stated  position  see 
"The  Psychology  of  Religion"  (Univ.  of  Chicago  Press,  1917)  and 
"A  Social  Theory  of  Religious  Education"  (Scribners,  1918),  both 
by  Prof.  George  A.  Coe. 


THE  REALIZATION  OF  DEMOCRACY      263 

for  wages  to  keep  body  and  soul  together,  but  they  are 
working  as  their  part  in  complete  social  living;  they  are 
sharing  life.  Changes  will  come  until  the  home  is  not 
simply  a  stall  and  manger  to  gain  strength  for  toil ;  it  is 
the  place  of  the  group-life  devoted  to  the  growth  of  lives 
through  sharing  a  common  social  life  of  joy  and  service. 
Changes  will  come  until  the  church  is  the  common  social 
organization  of  the  spiritual  life  of  its  community,  until 
the  school  is  the  socialization  of  the  child  and  youth  life 
of  the  community  so  that  it  may  be  directed  to  discover 
the  wealth  of  joy  and  life  and  the  ways  of  common  living. 
The  changes  will  come  until  all  living  becomes  a  spiritual, 
educational  experience  of  common  living,  of  social  devo- 
tion, of  religion. 

But  the  changes  wiU  come  as  the  results  of  social 
intent  on  our  part.  Our  dreams  must  lead  to  deeds. 
Children  must  be  taught  by  courses  in  church-schools  and 
community  schools;  parents  must  be  trained;  teachers 
must  be  prepared.  On  the  other  side  there  must  be 
organization  to  secure  conditions  which  make  possible  the 
common  social  life  and  cooperation  of  democracy.  Prep- 
aration includes  legislation,  direction  and  organization  to 
make  the  world  a  place  in  which  democracy  can  be  prac- 
tised. 

The  realization  of  democracy  waits  for  leadership. 
We  have  been  discussing  ideals  that  seem  to  be  very 
far  off.  They  are  the  ideals  of  leadership.  Many  may 
criticize  them  as  impractical;  others  may  object  that  they 
do  not  sufficiently  deal  with  methods  and  details.  But 
details  always  follow  vision ;  methods  are  discovered  when 
men  seek  to  achieve.  All  who  see  the  ideals  must  declare 
them  even  though  the  means  be  not  yet  in  sight.  The 
leadership  of  ideals,  of  vision,  precedes  all  else.  If  there 
are  prophets  of  democracy  to-day  woe  be  to  them  if  they 
are  silent!  Woe  be  to  the  preachers  who  wait  for  the 
people  to  indicate  a  pleasing  theme  when  their  hearts  are 


964  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

burning  with  a  message  on  life !  Woe  be  to  the  teachers 
who  lead  youth  in  a  treadmill  when  their  own  eyes  see 
a  vision  afar  off,  while  the  youth  are  hungry  of  heart  for 
that  which  the  teacher  sees  and  does  not  tell!  We  dare 
not  be  "  afraid  of  that  which  is  high." 

But  all  leadership  is  the  result  of  training.  Democ- 
racy must  train  its  leaders  in  democracy.  We  are  train- 
ing leaders ;  but  are  we  training  them  to  lead  toward  our 
spiritual  goals?  Are  the  colleges  and  universities  schools 
of  leadership  in  democracy?  Do  we  definitely  plan  that 
the  young  men  and  women  who  graduate  shall  be  able  to 
show  the  way  to  the  better  social  order?  We  train  a 
leadership  for  the  church  but  what  consciousness  is  there 
in  that  training  of  the  function  of  religion  in  the  realiza- 
tion of  democracy?  ^  Is  the  ministry  trained  to  lead  the 
churches  in  making  their  communities  spiritual  democ- 
racies? 

And  yet  democracy  is  fast  coming.  No  one  can  fail 
to  see  its  signs,  not  alone  in  national  and  political  move- 
ments but  in  the  every-day  ways  of  men.  It  is  coming 
through  the  new  attitude  toward  the  child.  It  is  clearly 
presaged  when  the  national  government  sets  up  a  depart- 
ment of  child-welfare.  More  and  more  communities  think 
of  themselves  in  terms  of  the  life  of  the  child.  We  would 
save  the  children;  we  would  enrich  their  lives;  we  would 
give  them  all  that  our  life  affords,  not  because  they  are 
so  interesting,  nor  alone  because  they  tug  at  our  heart 
strings,  but  because  they  so  clearly  stand  for  the  simple 
values  of  life,  because  they  are  our  coming  society,  because 
they  are  our  supreme  opportunity  to  express  democracy 
in  giving  our  lives  to  the  development  and  enriching  of 
their  lives. 

Democracy    is    coming   fast   through    education.     The 

1  See  "  The  Seminary  and  Democracy "  by  Owen  H.  Gates,  in 
Religious  Education,  June,  1918,  Vol.  XIII,  No.  3,  page  193,  also 
pubUshed  by  The  Religious  Education  Asspciation  as  a  pamphlet. 


THE  REALIZATION  OF  DEMOCRACY      265 

emphasis  on  social  principles,  social  rights  and  social 
duties  is  its  promise.  The  old  intellectualism  is  going 
as  an  ism  and  becoming  the  servant  of  the  life  of  all. 
The  college  and  the  university  are  conscious  of  the  total 
life  in  which  they  stand ;  they  are  the  servants  of  society. 
Their  attitude  of  devotion  to  the  good  of  all  is  the  most 
effective  means  possible  to  develop  in  students  a  like 
personal  social  attitude. 

Religious  education  is  the  promise  of  democracy.  It 
is  our  social  endeavor  to  train  all  persons,  as  spiritual 
beings,  for  a  spiritual  world-life.  What,  then,  is  educa- 
tion for  democracy  but  religious  education,  the  training 
of  persons  for  living  in  a  social  order  which  is  guided  by 
religious  motives,  is  conscious  of  present  religious  values 
and  looks  toward  religious  ideals?  That  religious  ideal 
involves  an  interpretation  of  all  life  in  spiritual  terms. 
It  calls  the  family  back  to  its  function  of  nurturing 
spiritual  beings.  It  calls  the  church  to  train  and  instruct 
persons  in  the  ways  of  a  democracy  of  the  spirit.  It 
calls  on  our  organized  social  life  to  realize  its  undeveloped 
educational  powers,  to  make  all  life  an  experience  in 
common  living,  in  the  splendid  joys  of  common  service 
and  of  self-devotion  to  all.  It  calls  us  all  to  jeam^-to 
love  one  another;  it  invites  to  tEe^ discovery  that  life  is 
our  greaF/cTlin^^o  love  and  serve.  It  would  lead  each 
one  to  declare,  m  all  humility  an3""air faith,  "  I  am  come 
that  they  might  have  life  and  that  they  might  have  it  more 
abundantly."     The  life  of  each  is  found  in  the  life  of  all. 


CHAPTER  XXI 

DEMOCEACY    IN    THE    CEUCIAL    HOUR 

OuE  faith  in  democracy  served  us  well  in  the  long 
period  of  growth,  under  the  strain  of  settlement,  organ- 
ization and  development;  but  what  of  these  days  of  a 
world  distraught,  what  of  days  when  mankind  is  in  a 
high  fever  and  breaking  out  all  over  in  eruptive  spots 
of  political  revolution?  Where  despotism  has  reigned 
anarchy  takes  its  place  and  emphatically  proclaims  its 
political  philosophy  as  the  ultimate  gospel  of  social  well- 
being;  and  where  democracy  has  been  developing  seething 
discontent  scoffs  at  it  as  an  out-worn,  unworkable  idealism. 
It  demands  its  overthrow  and  the  forcible  establishment 
of  control  by  the  class  that  has  been  so  long  exploited. 
We  sit  at  home  and  imagine  that  the  revolutionary  con- 
flict will  be  confined  to  the  areas  where  protest  has  long 
been  inevitable  and  to  peoples  crushed  under  the  heel  of 
the  oppressor.  If  we  hope  this  we  do  so  only  by  closing 
our  doors  and  pulUng  down  the  shades  while  we  bask 
by  our  firesides.  And  that  we  cannot  do  for  long;  the 
crowd  presses  at  our  doors  and  no  police  force  will  long 
avail.  For  our  democracy  this  is  the  great  hour  of 
decision;  is  our  faith  adequate  for  such  times  and  is  it 
strong  enough  to  go  forward  and  fulfill  itself.? 

Is  Bolshevism  the  logical  fruitage  of  a  genuine  and 

thorough  loyalty  to  the  democratic  principle.?     Is  this 

new  way,  either  in  its  mild  and  theoretical  form,  or  in  its 

hideous  menace  as  a  wild,  unrestrained,  brutal  creature 

of  hatreds  and  lusts,  the  natural  and  riper  realization  of 

democracy.?     Many  believe  so,  for,  they  argue,  what  is 

Bolshevism  but  the  free  and  complete  action  of  the  will 

266 


DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  CRUCIAL  HOUR      267 

of  the  mob,  without  restraints  of  custom,  precedent  or 
law?  To  them  it  seems  as  though  the  shameful,  blood- 
stained and  lurid  episode  of  Bolshevik  dominance  in 
Russia,  with  its  overflow  to  many  other  lands,  stands  out 
as  a  fearful  warning  of  what  will  happen  to  any  govern- 
ment that  goes  beyond  praising  liberty  to  practice  it  by 
giving  power  to  the  undisciplined  will  of  the  proletariat. 
It  is  an  exhibition,  they  say,  of  the  extreme  form  of  popu- 
lar government  which  is  no  government  at  all  and  only  the 
anarchistic  violence  of  a  mob.  But  Bolshevism  is  not 
the  fruitage  of  democracy ;  it  is  the  direct  result  of  blind 
autocracy.  It  is  not  the  logical  outcome  of  popular 
freedom  and  self-government;  it  is  the  inevitable  ultimate 
of  autocratic  control  and  repression. 

Even  the  children  who  have  lived  through  the  years  of 
the  great  war  know  that  Russia  sowed  the  wind  and  reaped 
the  whirlwind.  No  one  could  expect  that  the  bitter  school 
of  cruel  repression  would  furnish  the  disciplines  for  a 
restrained  democracy.  Wherever  the  methods  of  old  Rus- 
sia have  been  applied  they  have  brought  forth  similar 
fruit.  It  makes  no  diff^erence  whether  the  serfdom  be 
applied  in  a  state  or  a  factory,  whether  the  oppressing 
class  be  hereditary  nobles  or  industrial  barons,  their  view 
of  life  and,  especially,  of  the  lives  of  others  results  ulti- 
mately in  developing  in  men  a  distrust  of  all  systems  of 
government,  a  hatred  of  all  forms  of  power  and  an  habit- 
ual impatience  with  all  legal  and  social  methods  of  secur- 
ing their  rights.  Under  the  exploitation  of  their  op- 
pressors they  have  seen  these  methods  fail  too  often ;  they 
have  seen  the  social  processes  of  life  subverted  to  the  ends 
of  employers.  So  steadily  and  successfully  have  they  been 
deprived  of  their  social  rights  that,  having  ceased  to 
experience  them  for  themselves,  it  is  not  strange  they 
cease  to  regard  them  or  to  believe  in  them  for  any  one. 
Wherever  the  methods  of  old  Russia  have  been  applied 
they  have  made  possible  the  Russia  of  the  past  few  years. 


268  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

That  accounts  for  one  kind  of  Bolshevik,  the  fruitage, 
not  of  democracy,  not  of  any  sort  of  a  social  theory  held 
in  his  mind,  but  of  greedy,  selfish,  class  oppression.  There 
is  another  source  from  which  the  ragged  ranks  are  re- 
cruited, the  incapables  and  socially  subnormals,  the  ones 
who  because  of  physical  and  mental  inefficiences  and  defects 
never  would  win  to  a  fair  share  of  goods  in  the  current 
social  system  of  competition.  Up  to  this  day  our  world 
has  paid  little  attention  to  this  class.  It  has  been  willing 
that  the  deficients  should  breed  their  kind  in  greater  pro- 
fusion than  efficients.  It  has  regarded  laziness  as  a  mental 
state,  a  matter  of  the  imagination  and  feelings,  and  it  has 
felt  no  responsibility  for  those  who  must  live  on  short 
rations  simply  because  they  lacked  the  good  sense  or 
the  grit  to  stand  up  in  the  fight  and  gain  a  full  share. 
Such  persons  welcome  a  social  upheaval  as  promising 
bread  without  work.  They  have  so  long  nursed  a  sense 
of  injustice,  so  long  cherished  grudges  against  the  suc- 
cessful and  so  long  laid  to  the  social  system  the  inequal- 
ities in  possessions  of  men  that  they  feel  everything  is  to 
be  gained  and  certainly  nothing  to  be  lost  by  sweeping 
changes  toward  which  they  have  only  the  irresponsible 
attitude  of  beneficiaries. 

Surely  the  remedy  for  the  existence  of  this  class  is 
not  so  very  hard  to  find  though  it  may  take  a  long  time 
to  effect  a  change.  It  lies  in  the  more  thorough  applica- 
tion of  democracy.  A  truly  democratic  society  will  feel 
an  inescapable  responsibility  for  the  defectives  and  the 
inefficient.  It  will  not  be  satisfied  until  every  life  has  a 
full  chance  to  be  all  that  it  might  be.  It  will  not  leave 
to  chance  the  fitting  of  these  incompetent  persons  into 
their  places  in  life.  It  will  not  thrust  on  the  refuse  heap 
of  social  failure  thousands  of  its  people  by  trying  to 
make  mechanics  out  of  farmers  and  ministers  out  of  mar- 
iners. It  will  not  be  satisfied  to  charge  physical  handi- 
caps to  Providence  but,  in  the  light  pf  its  primary  func- 


DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  CRUCIAL  HOUR      269 

tion  to  develop  lives,  it  will  seek  to  remove  these  handicaps. 
It  will  decrease  discontent  by  removing  deficiencies.  How 
many  of  our  "  under  dogs  "  are  really  lame  dogs,  blind, 
under-nourished,  embittered  by  early  experiences  of  misery 
and  driven  into  lives  of  snarling,  bickering  over  refuse  and 
bare   bones   of   social   neglect ! 

Then  we  must  remember  that  these  are  days  when  the 
methods  of  the  Bolshevik  are  likely  to  gain  currency. 
Overturning  and  upsetting  has  been  the  order  of  the  day. 
We  have  been  forced  into  rebuilding  a  world.  We  who 
are  conscious  of  our  sanity  could  hardly  hope  io  be 
granted  a  monopoly  on  rebuilding  nor  were  our  efforts 
so  professionally  rounded  out  in  proficiency  that  we  might 
hope  to  discourage  amateur  rebuilders.  Then,  think  how 
much  we  have  prated  about  reconstruction,  until  the  word 
is  frayed  and  obsolete;  it  is  not  strange  that  some  who 
always  tend  to  scorn  mere  words  should  try  their  hands 
at  a  little  practical  reconstruction  and  should  find  many 
ready,  willing  aids  in  those  who  certainly  could  not  find 
things  rearranged  any  worse  for  them. 

MORE    DEMOCRACY    OUR    HOPE 

The  hope  for  this  hour  lies  in  more  democracy,  in  carry- 
ing out  our  principles  to  their  full  and  logical  conclusions. 
The  menace  of  what  we  popularly  generalize  as  Bolshevism 
lies  in  the  fact  that  it  is  simply  a  rabid  application  of 
class  control.  It  does  not  disguise  that  fact ;  it  freely 
asserts  that  it  is  the  control  of  all  by  the  class  that  has 
hitherto  been  controlled  by  a  few.  And  the  dangers  of 
our  current  methods  of  combating  this  new  class  menace 
are,  first,  that  of  subverting  the  processes  of  democracy 
by  the  artificial  control  and  manipulation  of  public  opin- 
ion, and,  second,  a  falling  back  on  the  Bolshevik  method 
of  an  appeal  to  class  consciousness.  The  only  difi^erences 
between  the  methods  of  Bolshevism  and  the  forms  to  which 
some  of  our  saviors  of  society  would  resort,  are  that  the 


210  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

former  does  not  pretend  to  be  democratic;  it  uses  no 
screen  of  the  general  benevolence  to  hide  its  purposes  of 
benefiting  its  followers.  Its  orators  do  not  prate  about 
the  public  good  while  they  control  legislatures  for  private 
gain,  and  the  Bolshevists  use  weapons  less  refined,  more 
concrete  and  evident  than  our  class  politicians.  The 
latter  are  skilled  in  effecting  their  purposes  by  innocent- 
appearing  laws,  by  controls  of  markets,  prices  and  con- 
ditions of  living.  But  when  the  whole  thing  is  summed 
up,  it  is  not  likely  that  the  world  has  been  robbed  of 
more  life  by  the  rough-and-ready  method  of  the  sword 
and  flame  than  by  the  smooth  Marchiavellian  "  gentle- 
manly "  tactics  that  have  stolen  strength  from  the  workers 
and  made  large  fortunes  by  robbing  the  helpless  infants 
of  ice  and  milk. 

Much  that  many  indiscriminately  label  as  Bolshevism, 
Anarchy  and  Socialism  —  some  to  intensify  their  indigna- 
tion place  all  three  labels  on  such  as  they  would  excom- 
municate —  is  simply  inchoate  resentment  against  our 
modem  juggling  with  democracy.  Blind  Samson  knows 
he  has  been  shorn  of  powers  and  rights  and  fain  would 
tear  something  down.  Economic  changes  have  given  the 
under  dog  a  new  position.  He  is  not  an  angel  either 
because  he  is  under  or  over.  But  he  is  likely  to  try  on 
others  some  of  the  tricks  long  practiced  on  him.  His 
methods  are  all  wrong;  explaining  them  does  not  justify 
them.  But  the  wrong  and  failure  is  not  to  be  charged 
to  democracy.  Our  social  chaos  is  due,  in  the  main,  to 
two  causes,  that  we  have  neither  prepared  persons  for  the 
life  of  democracy  nor  have  we  really  practiced  it,  and 
that,  under  the  pressure  of  a  world  strain,  we  called  a 
practical  recess  on  democracy  as  a  political  method. 

If  democracy  has  failed  it  has  been  because  it  has  not 
been  tried.  It  has  failed  because  it  has  not  depended  on 
the  wills  of  all;  it  has  not  depended  on  the  development 
pf  a  common  goodwill  in  all  and  it  has  not  applied  the 


DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  CRUCIAL  HOUR      271 

will  of  all  to  the  well-being  of  all.  The  situation,  even 
in  the  face  of  so  many  outbreaks  of  violence,  even  when 
the  mob  seems  to  have  thrown  all  restraints  to  the  wind 
and  to  have  demonstrated  its  utter  unreliability,  calls  for 
more  faith  in  humanity,  for  a  more  direct  and  generous 
dependence  on  the  will  of  the  many.  The  greatest  mistake 
we  can  make  at  this  moment  is  to  lean  on  autocratic  con- 
trol for  our  protection. 

Our  danger  is  that  having  tasted  the  efficiencies  of 
autocracy  in  the  manipulation  of  the  forces  of  the  nation 
through  the  crisis  of  the  war  we  shall  depend  on  the  same 
force  to  shield  and  guide  us  through  reconstruction. 
Dependence  on  the  "  strong  arm  of  the  government," 
as  it  is  now  construed,  is  only  a  relapse  into  feudalism. 
Being  unable  to  work  out  our  own  salvation  we  place 
ourselves  under  the  ward  of  bureaus  and  autocratic 
groups.  Accepting  a  medieval  political  serfdom  we  grate- 
fully depend  on  the  forces  organized  for  control  while  our 
own  powers  of  social  organization  and  direction  degenerate 
into  flabby  uselessness  and  final  paralysis. 

The  corollary  of  this  political  serfdom  is  submission  to 
the  undemocratic  control  of  public  opinion  by  overhead 
manipulation  and  propaganda  conducted  by  the  con- 
trolling forces.  The  possibilities  of  propaganda  have 
been  demonstrated  by  the  war.  A  group  can  gather  in 
a  committee  room  and  determine  what  the  nation  shall 
think.  A  campaign  of  advertising,  through  the  ordinary 
channels  of  publicity  and,  most  pernicious  of  all,  through 
the  creation  and  coloring  of  news,  can  start  and  control 
a  tide  of  feeling  that  passes  for  thought  and  determines 
action  throughout  the  nation.  A  bureau  can,  through 
a  censor,  suppress  facts  or  so  distort  and  maim  them, 
lopping  off  here  and  enlarging  and  luridly  coloring  there, 
that  the  passions  of  men  are  inflamed,  hatreds  are 
engendered  without  cause,  opinions  are  created  and  the 
vast  and  splendid  instrument  of  the  public  will  is  played 


^72  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

upon  to  any  tune  the  manipulators  wish.  What  Prussia 
did  to  control  the  wills  of  her  people,  by  the  direct  and 
detailed  control  of  the  press,  by  the  explicit  direction  of 
the  content  of  the  materials  of  education  and  the  use  of 
the  pulpits  as  tools  of  her  purpose,  we  have  been  doing 
in  every  particular.  Our  motives  may  have  been  the  op- 
posite of  hers,  but  our  method  has  been  the  same  in  almost 
every  particular.  We  count  it  a  crime  to  use  the  force 
of  clubs  and  steel  but  none  to  use  the  greater  force  of 
organized  manipulation  of  public  thought. 

We  are  in  danger  of  preserving  the  externals  and 
killing  the  essentials  of  democracy.  Maintaining  the 
trunk  of  this  fair  tree  above  the  ground,  in  the  superficial 
matters  of  the  ballot,  we  are  cutting  off  its  life-roots  by 
refusing  freedom  of  thought.  There  can  be  freedom,  the 
essential  of  democracy,  only  where  thought  is  free.  But, 
with  all  our  vaunted  faith  in  democracy  we  do  not  believe 
in  freedom  of  thought.  There  were  good  reasons  for  the 
control  of  certain  classes  of  information  during  the  period 
of  the  war;  but  there  is  no  justification  for  the  control  of 
the  currents  of  popular  knowledge;  there  is  no  justifica- 
tion, except  that  of  autocratic  expediency,  for  the  manip- 
ulation of  the  facts  upon  which  intelligent  judgment 
must  be  based.  Who  knows,  at  this  hour,  what  is  really 
happening  in  Russia?  Who  knows  what  happened  at 
A^ersailles?  We,  the  people,  who  are  supposed  to  deter- 
mine our  own  affairs,  cannot  be  trusted  with  knowledge; 
we  must  be  fed  like  children  too  young  for  the  real  facts, 
with*  gooseberry-bush  genetics  and  expurgated  world 
politics.  We  who  would  have  no  Caesar  over  our  bodies 
must  submit  to  the  Kaiserization  of  our  minds. 

If  these  conditions  were  but  a  temporary  phase,  an 
accommodation  to  war  conditions,  we  could  wait  for  the 
return  to  the  normal.  But  they  are  not  a  passing 
exigency ;  they  are  the  expression  of  a  philosophy  of  social 
control  that  is  as  old  as  the  hills.     They  are  the  spirit 


DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  CRUCIAL  HOUR      273 

of  class-control  in  action.  They  express  the  purposes 
which  undermine  democracy.  They  mark  the  methods  of 
the  groups  which  have  always  been  able,  despite  any  party 
lines,  to  unite  for  aristocracy  —  their  own  class  being  the 
aristocrats.  The  motto  of  "  the  people  be  damned  "  has 
been  wiped  out  of  business,  but  the  politician  simply 
enlarges  it  into  *'  The  people  be  damned  by  being  fooled." 

The  remedy  lies  in  resistance,  the  resistance  of  men  who 
are  and  must  continue  to  be  intellectually  free.  It  lies 
in  a  full  acceptance  of  the  faith  that  an  enlightened 
people  may  be  trusted  and  in  an  acceptance  of  the  cor- 
relative duty  of  both  demanding  fullness  of  light  and 
diffusing  whatever  light  we  have.  It  calls  for  the  work 
of  education,  giving  the  light  and  training  and  exercising 
the  powers  of  all  in  living  according  to  the  light.  The 
attempt  to  control  and  manipulate  society  is  an  abandon- 
ment of  the  educational  method  in  the  development  of 
democracy;  that  method  must  be  fully  restored.  We 
cannot  lie  quiet,  tamely  submitting  to  the  arbitrary  con- 
trol of  our  very  souls. 

But,  specifically,  what  can  be  done?  We  can  demand 
freedom.  We  can  reject  from  public  trust  all  who  do 
not  trust  the  people.  We  can  reject  the  subsidized  press 
and  support  every  organ  of  freedom  of  information  and 
discussion.  We  can  and  must  show  up  the  facts ;  let  the 
scientific  investigators  of  social  phenomena  throw  a  clear, 
cold,  undimmed  light  on  the  present  processes  of  propa- 
ganda. We  can  erect  and  conduct  other  agencies  than 
these  that  have  proven  false  to  the  democratic  trust,  not 
only  new  newspapers  and  journals  but  such  effective 
means  as  public  forums,  discussion  clubs  and  fearless 
pulpits  and  platforms  must  be  encouraged.  Any  agency 
that  is  loyal  to  facts  must  be  developed  as  a  sustainer  of 
democracy.  We  especially  should  protect  the  sources 
of  the  informing  and  training  of  the  young;  the  public 
schools  are  still  —  at  least  until  some  current  plans  of 


274  EDUCATION  FOR  DEMOCRACY 

bureaucratic  control  get  into  operatiofn  - —  subject  to 
local  control;  they  must  be  protected.  The  churches, 
while  they  have  largely  yielded  to  the  machinery  of 
propaganda,  have  done  so  with  good  intent;  their  free- 
dom can  be  maintained  and  their  power  for  enlightenment 
and  the  development  of  the  spirit  of  freedom  can  be 
strengthened.  If  they  refuse  to  save  their  own  spiritual 
freedom  they  must  be  allowed  to  die. 

And  yet  more,  how  much  every  man  needs  to  fight 
against  the  tendency  that  grows  with  advancing  years 
to  give  up  the  struggle  of  spiritual  freedom  and  to  accept 
the  easy  ways  of  external  protection  and  control.  The 
peace  that  Newman  sought  in  the  Church  of  Rome  tempts 
us  all.  There  is  no  rest  for  the  spirit  that  seeks  growth. 
And  there  is  the  tendency  to  seek  stability  in  the  status 
quo.  Our  material  interests  in  things  as  they  are  make 
us  fear  the  ferment  of  a  changing  world.  Having  a  little 
holding  it  is  so  much  safer,  apparently,  to  be  serfs,  to 
accept  the  protection  of  our  over-lords  than  to  go  on 
venturing  all  in  the  long  struggle  of  freedom.  The  pass- 
ing years  accentuate  our  dread  of  change ;  thought  habits 
have  cut  deep  ruts  and  it  is  so  much  easier  to  travel  in 
them  than  to  try  the  new  ways.  The  spirit  of  youth 
passes  and  we  no  longer  feel  the  stronger  attraction  of 
pioneering.  Against  all  these  things  we  must  fight,  or 
cease  tb  grow  and  live,  or  cease  to  be  democrats.  And 
such  a  fight  we  ought  not  to,  indeed  we  cannot  wage 
alone.  By  social  means  we  must  develop  self-culture  for 
democracy,  strengthening  the  hearts  of  one  another, 
enlarging  the  common  vision  and  clarifying  the  common 
knowledge. 

Further,  all  who  believe  in  democracy  must  be  wholly 
loyal  to  their  faith  in  these  days.  Many  are  the 
attractive  short-cuts  that  open  up  to  the  desired  ends 
of  social  well-being.  The  democrat  is  always  tempted  to 
depend  on  external  controls  to  effect  the  social  good  he 


DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  CRUCIAL  HOUR      ^75 

desires.  Legislation,  social  regulation  and  regimentation 
promise  to  do  by  compulsion  that  which  education,  work- 
ing through  the  will  of  all,  can  effect  only  in  a  much 
longer  period  of  time.  But  whenever  we  take  advantage 
of  these  short-cuts,  every  time  we  place  our  reliance  on 
external  compulsions  we  defeat  the  ends  and  short-circuit 
the  processes  of  democracy. 

Nor  is  freedom  all  we  need ;  one  other  dominating  prin- 
ciple of  democracy  must  be  put  into  practice  and  given 
larger  power ;  we  need  the  controls  that,  rising  and  ruling 
in  each  man's  breast,  guide  all  into  ways  that  are  above 
our  present  conflicting  aims  and  competing  struggles. 
Society  will  be  saved  only  as  it  is  ruled  by  social  ideals 
that  set  first  for  every  one  the  aim  of  social  good. 
Democracy  is  more  than  freedom  of  action;  it  is  that 
freedom  which  ultimately  liberates  every  man  from  the 
bondage  of  his  lower  purposes  and  gives  him  freedom  of 
action  in  that  range  of  interests  where  the  enriching  of 
one  never  means  the  impoverishing  of  another.  In  a 
word,  democracy  to-day  needs  a  dominating  spiritual 
purpose.  It  needs  a  religious  ideal,  one  that  will  be  freely 
discovered  and  adopted  through  religious  education. 

Are  we  really  democrats?  This  is,  do  we  believe,  first 
of  all  and  most  of  all,  in  the  personal-social  values  in 
life?  Are  these  the  ends  for  which  we  live?  Do  we 
organize  our  lives  for  these  ends,  test  all  our  institutions 
and  laws  by  their  effect  on  these  purposes  and  constantly 
insist  on  social  conditions  which  make  possible  the  devel- 
opment of  spiritual  value?  Do  we  interpret  democracy 
religiously,  as  a  spirit  of  life,  as  an  ideal  to  be  realized 
only  through  faith,  sacrifice  and  self-giving,  as  a  passion 
and  hope,  as  a  way  through  which  the  world  will  find  its 
soul  ? 

THE    END 

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